AHRQ, CMS Award $13 million to test, implement new children's quality measures
Organizations will focus on assessing the feasibility of the new measures within Medicaid and CHIP patient populations.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has awarded $13.4 million in funding over four years to six new Pediatric Quality Measures Program grantees, CMS announced Monday.
The funds will be focused on testing and implementing new pediatric quality measures developed by the PQMP Centers of Excellence to see how they work when used in the front lines of care.
Quality measures are used to evaluate health care processes, outcomes, and other health care delivery-related factors. The pediatric quality measures are used by state Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Programs and other programs to measure and improve the quality of children's health care, CMS said.
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The new grantees will focus on assessing the feasibility of the new measures within Medicaid and CHIP patient populations at several levels, including the State, health plan, and provider, to support performance monitoring and quality improvement.
"The PQMP Centers of Excellence provided us with valid measures of children's healthcare quality. This next step of research will help us test these measures in real-world settings," said AHRQ Director Andy Bindman, MD. "The ultimate goal is to improve children's health through better health care, at lower costs, at both the federal and state level."
The PQMP was initially established in 2011 by AHRQ and CMS to increase the number pediatric quality measures available. The initial phase of the PQMP funded seven Centers of Excellence to develop new pediatric measures.
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This new effort is funded through the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, known as MACRA. The new rule, which has yet to be finalized, provides funding for the Pediatric Quality Measure Program "to build knowledge and evidence to support performance monitoring and quality improvement for children in Medicaid and CHIP," CMS said.
Twitter: @BethJSanborn
