HHS has unveiled basic guidelines for its National Quality Strategy, which will bring stakeholders together to choose the best quality metrics for providers and others as healthcare reforms unfold, according to an HHS release.
The healthcare reform law instructed HHS to develop specific quality metrics. “By design, this first-year strategy does not include these elements, in order to allow them to be developed with additional collaboration and engagement of the participating agencies along with private sector consultation,” the report itself stated.
The report outlines three aims for the strategy: to raise overall quality of care, improve the health of the U.S. population and reduce the cost of care. The HHS report has established priorities to meet those aims, including making care safer; ensuring patients and their families are involved; promoting the most effective practices, starting with cardiovascular disease; ensuring wide use of best practices; and making care more affordable by developing new delivery models.
The National Quality Strategy, announced in September, will be “an evolving guide,” the release stated. “HHS will continue to work with stakeholders to create specific quantitative goals and measures for each of these priorities.”
Recognizing that “different communities have different needs and assets,” the release said “HHS will empower them to take different paths to achieving these goals.” The strategy will be used by other reform initiatives, such as the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.
Read the HHS release on healthcare quality.
Read the full HHS report on the National Quality Strategy.
Read more coverage on quality of care:
– AHA: Medicaid Quality Measures Should be More Focused
– Humana CEO: Patients Should Question Healthcare Costs, Quality
– 12 Key Issues About ACOs From Don Berwick, Prior to Releasing Proposed Rules
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