NCQA Lauds Release of National Healthcare Quality Report; AHRQ Effort Highlights Gaps, Successes; NCQA Calls for Action 12/22/2003
From: Brian Schilling or Barry Scholl, 202-955-5104 or 202-955-5197, both of NCQA WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 -- NCQA praised the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for today issuing its first comprehensive report on health care quality. AHRQ's report suggests that many opportunities exist to improve health care access and quality. NCQA's State of Health Care Quality report, released in September, arrived at a similar conclusion and laid out a series of proven strategies for driving quality improvement throughout the health care system. "AHRQ's report is the health care system speaking to us and what it's saying is, 'fix me,'" said NCQA President Margaret E. O'Kane. "Applying the lessons we've already learned about improving health care and rewarding value is the biggest thing separating us from the health care system we should have." NCQA's State of Health Care Quality report identified many of the same "quality gaps" highlighted in the AHRQ report. Also included in that report was data from the past several years showing that substantial improvement tends to follow in the wake of regular performance measurement and public reporting. Health plans that regularly report on their performance showed improvements across a broad range of clinical and member satisfaction measures. This finding suggests that regular measurement and reporting requirements should be central to any efforts to reform or improve the health care system. NCQA also recommends the following steps for driving health care quality improvement: -- Invest in technology. Health care remains one of the least wired sectors of the economy. Yet delivering, coordinating and following up on even routine health care is a complex process that increasingly must be backed by a sophisticated information system capable of detecting errors, providing support and helping to engage the patient. The federal government should work with various stakeholders to help develop a national health care information infrastructure. The government should also and provide funding for and reward investment in health care information technology. -- Reward excellence. Only in health care does performance bear little or no relation to compensation. Literally dozens of private and public "pay for quality" efforts have been launched in recent years. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Bridges to Excellence Coalition and the California-based Pay for Performance effort are but a few of many notable initiatives. There is ample evidence to confirm that linking pay with performance helps to improve quality. We need to increase our commitment in this area. -- Demand public reporting. As consumers are called upon to take a greater and greater role in their own health care, it is imperative that they have the information with which to do so. This means providing them with meaningful report cards about the quality of providers, hospitals and health plans. Public reporting of quality data has been shown to be a dramatic and reliable driver of improved performance. ------ NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations 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. |