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Hospital Quality Alliance

CMS support for the HQA | Measures | View Your Data
HQA and Section 501(b) of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003
Resources | Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update

Overview:

The Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA) is one of many efforts in CMS' overall Hospital Quality Initiative. In December 2002, the American Hospital Association (AHA), Federation of American Hospitals (FAH), and Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) launched the HQA, a voluntary initiative to collect and report hospital quality performance information. The HQA was established to:

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), National Quality Forum (NQF), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), American Medical Association (AMA), Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project, AFL-CIO, AARP, and others support this initiative as the beginning of an ongoing effort to make hospital performance information more accessible to the public, payers, and providers of care. NQF, JCAHO, CMS, and AHRQ are providing the technical assistance in developing and/or identifying quality measures and in making the information accessible, understandable, and relevant to the public. This project builds upon previous CMS and QIO strategies to identify illnesses and/or clinical conditions that affect Medicare beneficiaries in order to: promote the best medical practices associated with the targeted clinical disorders; prevent or reduce further instances of these selected clinical disorders; and prevent related complications.