HHS Seeks Comments on Core Set Of Children's Health Quality Measures

The Department of Health and Human Services Dec. 29 released a core set of children's health care quality measures as required by the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (Pub. L. No. 111-3).

In a Federal Register notice, HHS published the 24 measures, along with a request for public comment (74 Fed. Reg. 68846).

The measures are intended to be used on a voluntary basis by Medicaid and CHIP programs, insurers and managed care entities that contract with the programs, and the programs' providers.

The measures include 13 measures of the quality of prevention and health promotion services, five measures of the quality of management of acute conditions, four measures of the quality of management of chronic conditions, one family experiences of care measure, and one access measure.

For example, the measurements range from the frequency of ongoing prenatal care and childhood

immunization status to the number of well-child care visits and emergency department utilization.

The notice said HHS is seeking comments “to help determine which measures should remain in the core set, which measures may need further development to enhance their validity and feasibility, and the nature of technical assistance and other resources required before State Medicaid and CHIP programs and health care providers can be expected to implement and report on these measures.”

Comments on the proposed measures must be received no later than March 1, 2010.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services developed the measures with input from groups representing providers, children and families, and quality measurement experts.

According to an AHRQ background report, the measures incorporate many of the health care topics specified in CHIPRA, but there are some topics “for which currently available, valid, and feasible measures could not be identified, and some legislative criteria that could not be met.” Examples of the unavailable measures include most integrated care delivery settings, availability of services, and “a core measure of duration of enrollment and coverage for use in quality reporting,” according to the report.

The report also said additional work is needed to “meet the CHIPRA goals of measuring and improving quality across all enrollees in Medicaid and CHIP programs and identifying disparities by race and special health care needs status.”