Strengthening the Core Set of Healthcare Quality Measures for Adults Enrolled in Medicaid, 2016 

This report is the Measure Applications Partnership’s (MAP’s) fourth set of annual recommendations to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for strengthening and revising measures in the Core Set of Healthcare Quality Measures for Adults Enrolled in Medicaid (Adult Core Set). Guided by MAP’s Measure Selection Criteria and feedback from three years of state core set implementation, MAP supports the continued use of all 28 measures in the 2016 Adult Core Set. In addition, MAP proposed the addition of six new measures to the Adult Core Set to help improve behavioral health, preventive care and screening, medication adherence and asthma. Although states are increasingly reporting on standardized measures that can be used to compare and benchmark state performance, MAP identified high priority gap areas that lack adequate metrics for measuring quality improvement, including care coordination and access to primary, specialty, and behavioral healthcare. MAP also discussed several strategic issues related to alignment, care coordination, and linking healthcare with community supports and services. The identified strategic issues and gaps will guide future annual revisions to further strengthen the Adult Core Set.