Improving the Performance of Performance Reporting and Quality-Based Purchasing Initiatives

Award Year: 2004	Investigator: R. Adams Dudley	Budget: $275,000	Categories: Payment Methods, Performance and Outcome Measurement
Abstract: Health care performance measurement and reporting is receiving a great deal of attention as a way to encourage providers to deliver better care. Yet several murky areas remain about what to measure, how to measure it, and how best to use health care performance measures. R. Adams Dudley, M.D., M.B.A., considers several key policy and technical issues in his project, Improving the Performance of Performance Reporting and Quality-Based Purchasing Initiatives. These issues include prioritizing possible measures, reconciling the varied measurement preferences of stakeholders, tackling risk adjustment and performance grading, and addressing special cases such as safety net and rural providers. Partnering with the National Quality Forum, Consumers Union, the Leapfrog Group, the National Business Coalition on Health, the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Association, and the American Hospital Association, Dr. Dudley proposes to help design more effective performance reporting and incentive programs that could actually improve the quality of U.S. health care.