In payment reform, which quality measures matter the most?
In this HealthAffairs blog, the authors write:
“{T]o design and evaluate healthcare delivery and payment reforms, and to provide the most important and salient information to consumers when they face important health care choices, healthcare purchasers need to know which quality measures matter most. If employers and other healthcare purchasers determined which measures the industry uses, they would examine where they spend the most money on health care services and then ascertain within those areas where their populations experience the greatest variation in the cost and quality of that care — a clear sign of poor reliability and value in the marketplace.
“It is at this intersection where purchasers would aim to create incentives for improvement and track progress over time. And that’s what we’ve done.”
And:
“Now that we have identified … 12 priority clinical areas and associated measures, we can’t help but wonder if the numerous payment reform efforts throughout the country are paying them adequate attention? What about quality improvement, consumer transparency and other efforts? Given that we identified them, in part, due to the uneven quality they represent, I think we know the answer. We hope shining a spotlight will get the attention of the commercial market and also point out where its interests diverge from Medicare….”
