Performance Measure Development and Testing

Multiple organizations are engaged in the performance measurement development and testing including medical societies, the federal government, and healthcare quality organizations. Some examples of measure developers include:

Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI)

The AMA-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI) is a national, physician-led program committed to enhancing quality of care and patient safety through the development, testing, and maintenance of evidence-based clinical performance measures. Currently more than 280 individual measures in 46 clinical and preventive care areas have been developed. PCPI uses a standardized measure testing protocol[PDF] during measure development. Visit the PCPI Website.

National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)

The NCQA is a private, not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. The NCQA has developed the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) a tool used by more than 90 percent of America's health plans to measure performance on important dimensions of care and service. The HEDIS performance measure set is used for the NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home certification program for improving primary care. Visit the NCQA Website.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provides health coverage for 100 million people. As a result of the Affordable Care Act, CMS is developing new incentive programs and tools applying performance measurement initiatives in order to increase the quality and value in healthcare. Visit the CMS Website.

Development of Electronic Specifications and "eMeasures"

Wider adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) will spur performance measure use enormously. There is growing need for a standardized format to develop electronic specifications that are interoperable across all electronic health records. For more information on the development of "eMeasures" visit NQF Health IT.