The Catalyst for Payment Reform has published this guide to quality measurement selection for employers and purchasers who seek to leverage their investments in health care to drive quality improvement and payment reform. The Catalyst for Payment Reform has established a goal that 20 percent of payments will flow through methods proven to improve value by 2020.
The guide includes a priority measure set, a list of 30 quality measures that evaluate the performance of health care providers in 12 priority clinical areas, as well as four cross-cutting aspects, such as patient experience and preventive services. The priority clinical areas represent where there is the highest spending and the largest variation in quality and cost for the commercially insured, working age population and their dependents.
The guide also describes challenges in using certain measures, such as availability of data to calculate performance results according to measure specifications. The guide also describes gaps in the measures available for the priority clinical areas, and concludes with a path forward, including a call to action for purchasers to promote use of these measures and to help fill the gaps.
There is an accompanying five-page “action brief” that summarizes the guide.
Ignatius Bau 