The Core Quality Measures Collaborative: A Rationale And Framework For Public-Private Quality Measure Alignment

In today’s health care system, physicians are faced with an unprecedented number of quality measures required by different entities. Payment is pivoting away from traditional reimbursement models toward value-based health care, where value is a function of both quality and cost. Patients are making an about-face from traditionally passive receivers of health care to informed consumers with expectations of transparency. Payers and employer groups are demanding accountability for how their dollars are being spent.

In this changing environment, health care quality measurement must evolve to meet stakeholder expectations. Current quality measurements provide a solid foundation upon which to build the kind of quality measurement that includes manageable reporting requirements for providers, alignment by reporting entities, and a focus on health outcomes that are more meaningful to consumers, providers, and payers, than many process-based measures.

To realize this vision, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and its member plans’ Chief Medical Officers convened leaders from The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the National Quality Forum (NQF), as well as national physician organizations, to form The Core Quality Measures Collaborative in 2014.