September 7, 2006
New Quality Measures for Medical Specialties Unveiled for Public Comment
Measures proposed by NCQA, Mathematica, AMA to be considered for voluntary reporting; measures address emergency medicine, geriatric care, gastroesophageal reflux disease
WASHINGTON—The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), in collaboration with Mathematica Policy Research, the American Medical Association (AMA) and the AMA-convened Physician Consortium for Performance ImprovementTM (Consortium), have released the third in a series of physician quality measure sets for public comment that focus on specialty care. The measures will be considered for use by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to capture data about the quality of care delivered to Medicare beneficiaries.
While significant efforts are underway to measure and report on the quality of care at the physician or physician practice level, most have focused on primary care rather than care delivered by specialists and subspecialists. Generally accepted performance measures, such as the Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) or AMA/Consortium measures of ambulatory care, tend to focus on delivery of preventive care, primary care disease management, or general care for the elderly.
“Patients have a right to information about the performance of their physicians. These new specialty care measures will increase the universe of information we know about physician performance,” said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane. “We’re delighted to have partnered with Mathematica and the Consortium in their development.”
“The Consortium is committed to developing evidence-based performance measures to help physicians continue to improve the quality of patient care,” said Consortium Co-Chair Bernard M. Rosof, M.D., M.A.C.P. “The Consortium has collaborated with medical specialty experts and health quality experts to develop these measure sets. We look forward to receiving input from physicians and others during this public comment process so we can continue to refine the measures.”
The eight sets of specialty measures, developed with the support of a contract from CMS, have been released in three phases for public comment. The third and final phase of public comment, released today, include measures of geriatric care, emergency care and gastroesophageal reflux disease care. Measures assessing aspects of eye care, osteoporosis and perioperative care were released in early July; a second phase of public comment included measures of stroke care and melanoma.
To view and comment on the measure sets, log on to www.ncqa.org. Interested parties are invited to comment on the measures through September 29.
About NCQA
NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations, recognizes physicians and physician groups in key clinical areas and manages the evolution of HEDIS, the tool the nation’s health plans use to measure and report on their performance. NCQA is committed to providing health care quality information through the Web, media and data licensing agreements in order to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices.
About Mathematica
Mathematica, a nonpartisan firm, conducts policy research and surveys for federal and state governments, foundations, and private-sector clients. The employee-owned company, with offices in Princeton, N.J., Washington, D.C., and Cambridge, Mass., has conducted some of the most important studies of health care, disability, early childhood policies, welfare, education, employment, and nutrition programs in the U.S. Mathematica strives to improve public well-being by bringing the highest standards of quality, objectivity, and excellence to bear on the provision of information collection and analysis to its clients.
About the Consortium
The American Medical Association (AMA)-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement is committed to enhancing quality of care and patient safety by taking the lead in the development, testing, and implementation of evidence-based clinical performance measures and outcomes reporting tools for physicians. The Consortium is currently comprised of over 100 national medical specialty and state medical societies; the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, American Board of Medical Specialties and its member-boards; experts in methodology and data collection; the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.