MHA Press Room

CMS issues Medicaid/CHIP reports on children’s health care quality

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Dec. 19 released its annual report summarizing state and national information on health care quality for children in the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Required by the CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2009, the report provides information on state Medicaid/CHIP quality reporting as well as CMS quality initiatives.

CMS also issued a separate report describing efforts by the agency and state Medicaid programs to improve maternal and infant health outcomes by reducing early elective deliveries without a medical reason.

Mississippi has 559,653 children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP.

AHRQ issues annual quality, disparities reports

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on Feb. 28 issued its eighth annual health care quality and disparities reports, which measure trends and disparities in health care access and quality based on more than 200 measures. According to the reports, gains in health care quality were seen in a number of areas, with the highest rates of improvement in measures related to treatment of acute illnesses or injuries.

For example, the proportion of heart attack patients who underwent procedures to unblock heart arteries within 90 minutes improved from 42% in 2005 to 81% in 2008. However, disparities in health care access and quality based on race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status and other factors continue to persist, the reports state.

On average, Americans report barriers to care one-fifth of the time, ranging from 3% of people saying they were unable to get or had to delay getting prescription medications to 60% of people saying their usual provider did not have office hours on weekends or nights.

Study: Medical errors cost at least $19.5 billion annually

Medical errors cost the U.S. economy at least $19.5 billion in 2008, estimates a study released today by the Society of Actuaries. Of that amount, about $17 billion was due to increased medical costs, $1.1 billion to lost productivity from short-term disability claims, and $1.4 billion from increased mortality rates.

Commissioned by SOA and completed by consultants with Milliman, Inc., the report used 2008 claims data to provide an actuarially sound estimate of costs for potentially avoidable medical injuries.

Hospital Compare adds data on emergency, outpatient care

The Hospital Quality Alliance on July 7 made available on the Hospital Compare website data on the quality of emergency care for heart attack/chest pain patients, outpatient surgical care and imaging services for Medicare patients. The website also includes updated data (from July 2006 to June 2009) on hospital readmission and mortality rates for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia patients.

"It's important that consumers and patients have access to reliable information on hospital quality that can help them make decisions about their care," said AHA President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock. "That's why hospitals are committed to being transparent about the quality of care they provide by sharing information at Hospital Compare. Hospitals also use the information to focus their quality improvement efforts."

The American Hospital Association is a member of the HQA, a broad group dedicated to improving health care quality and making useful information about hospital quality available to the public.

Poll: Much of public not using health care quality information

Only 30% of Americans saw information this year comparing the quality of health plans, hospitals or doctors, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll. About 22% said they saw information comparing the quality of health plans, 20% the quality of hospitals and 12% the quality of doctors. About half as many reported using the information. Just 6% of Americans had heard of the Hospital Compare Web site.

More on the survey can be found online.

Consumers unsure which hospital in their area offers the best quality of care

Although faced with increased public transparency and access to healthcare data, consumers are not any more knowledgeable about area hospitals and health care services than they were a few years ago, according to recent telephone survey of 1,000 households conducted by PRC. More than one-third (38.6%) of consumers nationwide are unsure which hospital provides the best quality of care.

Only 8.9% of consumers are aware of the Hospital Compare website, and only 21.7% of those consumers (1.93% of the nation’s consumers total) have accessed it. Consumers’ perceptions of their local hospitals have remained basically static over the last few years, with two-thirds saying their hospitals have “remained the same.”

Download the National Consumer Perception Study report from Professional Research Consultants.

AHRQ issues health care performance data by state

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on March 26 issued its annual “state snapshots” summarizing data on health care quality by state. Based on data from the agency’s 2007 National Healthcare Quality Report, the snapshots summarize state performance by health care setting and type of care, and rank the states on 15 measures ranging from cancer deaths, vaccination and prenatal care rates to recommended heart attack care.

New to the snapshots this year are data on state health status and progress toward the Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2010 health goals.

Mississippi's snapshot information is here.

Report: Health care quality improving

The quality of medical care of more than 80 million insured Americans enrolled in 767 health plans improved in 2006, according to a recent report by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

The data collected by the organization shows that commercial health plans posted improvements in 30 of 44 quality care measures such as childhood immunizations and colorectal cancer screening. Medicaid plans also improved in 34 of 43 measures.

However, the committee's research shows that health plans participating in Medicare lagged behind for the second year in a row, improving only in 7 of the 21 measures.

[ via The Orlando Business Journal ]

Scorecard ranks states on health care access, cost, quality

Health system performance varies widely across states, according to a scorecard released June 13 by a Commonwealth Fund commission. The state scorecard assesses health system performance on 32 measures of access and quality, avoidable hospital use and costs, equity and healthy lives.

If all states performed as well as the top quartile, the panel estimates the nation annually would save billions of dollars and have 90,000 fewer deaths under age 75 from preventable conditions and half as many uninsured people. To improve performance across states, the commission calls for universal health coverage, more information on practices and policies that contribute to high or varying performance, and national leadership and collaboration across public and private sectors.

[ via AHA News Now ]

State quality snapshots released

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on June 11 updated its State Snapshots Web tool based on data from its 2006 National Healthcare Quality Report. The data draws on 129 quality measures from various sources, and includes state rankings for a subset of 15 measures chosen to represent a broad range of common diseases.

The snapshots provide summaries by type of care, care setting and clinical area, and users can view whether a state has improved in a particular area and how it compares to other states. The tool includes a section on diabetes care and a table containing all the measures for every state.

[ via AHA News Now ]