Medical Business Journal
GAO releases first annual review of NQF Shows NQF’s progress related to MIPPA quality measures
The National Quality Forum (NQF) was awarded a contract in Jan. 2009, with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in order to monitor quality measures mandated by the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA). The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its first required annual review of NQF’s progress. NQF, a nonprofit member organization, has five duties required of it by MIPPA: 1) Make recommendations on a national strategy and priorities 2) Endorse quality measures, which involves a process for determining which ones should be recognized as national standards 3) Maintain—update or retire—endorsed quality measures 4) Promote electronic health records 5) Report annually to Congress and the Secretary of HHS While the GAO report stated that it was too soon to judge the effectiveness of NQF at accomplishing these duties, the report gave an account of NQF’s progress thus far. NQF has established a committee of stakeholders to recommend strategies and priorities for quality measurement. The committee published a list of recommended priorities in May 2010. NQF is developing a national standard to be proposed to HHS, which will then submit their proposal to Congress by Jan. 1, 2011. NQF has also established a process for endorsing quality measures. Organizations develop quality measures and submit them to NQF in response to solicitations by NQF. NQF then forms a committee of experts collected from its member organizations to consider these (Cont. Page 2 NQF)
Medical Business Journal - MMIclasses.com - Issue 5, Volume 1 - December 2010
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