Issues and challenges in measuring and improving the quality of health care / Tamara Beth Hayford, Jared Lane Maeda.

Format:

Book

Government document

Author/Creator:

Hayford, Tamara, author.

Maeda, Jared Lane, author.

Contributor:

United States. Congressional Budget Office, issuing body.

Series:

Working paper series (United States. Congressional Budget Office) ; 2017-10.

Working paper ; 2017-10

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medical care--United States--Quality control--Measurement.

Medical care.

Medical care--United States--Evaluation.

Medical care--Evaluation.

Medical care--Quality control--Measurement.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource ([2], 39 pages)

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : Congressional Budget Office, 2017.

Summary:

Various stakeholders have made significant efforts to measure and improve health care quality, spurred by landmark reports issued over a decade ago that highlighted serious deficiencies. Most payers now require providers of care to report on aspects of quality as a way to measure their performance and hold them accountable for it. The most common types of initiatives to measure and improve health care quality are public reporting programs and pay-for-performance programs. Under public reporting programs, providers' performance on quality measures is publicly disseminated to help consumers make informed choices about their care (which may also motivate providers to improve their quality). In pay-for-performance programs, providers' quality scores directly affect their payments. Both types of initiatives use various information and financial incentives to encourage providers to follow evidence-based guidelines and processes, improve patients' experiences when receiving care, and improve clinical outcomes. Despite the growing use of quality measures, progress has been slow, and many deficiencies in quality persist. This paper provides an overview of the current state of quality measurement, and it uses initiatives developed and implemented through the Medicare program to illustrate the key issues and challenges that arise in measuring and improving the quality of providers.

Contents:

1. Introduction.

The state of health care quality.

Definition of quality in health care.

Initiatives to measure and improve quality.

2. Quality measures.

Types of measures.

Data sources used to construct quality measures.

Strengths and limitations of quality measurement.

3. Initiatives to measure and improve health care quality.

Public reporting programs.

Pay-for-performance programs.

Issues and challenges in designing programs to measure and improve quality.

4. Future directions.

Development of better measures.

More effective application of measures.

Tables.

Notes:

"December 2017."

Includes bibliographical references.

Online resource; title from PDF cover page (CBO, viewed December 17, 2017).

Other Format:

Print version: Hayford, Tamara. Issues and challenges in measuring and improving the quality of health care

OCLC:

1015646813