Quality Data Reporting
Individual hospital generation of quality of care measurement data is advancing on several fronts. In a number of states, hospitals are, or soon will be, required by law to report hospital level indicators. Nationally, The Joint Commission (TJC) has created a set of quality of care measures that hospitals must report as part of the accreditation process. For several years, CMS has been collecting quality of care measures at the state level for reporting purposes and is working with TJC to achieve consistency between the indicators used by the two organizations. Further, with the implementation of Hospital Quality Initiative activities as detailed below, many hospitals now voluntarily abstract and collect quality of care measures, both in anticipation of associated reporting requirements and for internal quality improvement processes. The current data collection activities are listed below. Additional information, participation instructions and tools can be accessed from the public portion of the QualityNet (CMS approved data transmission portal) at www.qualitynet.org. 
Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU)
Under federal law, hospitals must submit quality performance data for specific quality measures to receive the full annual payment update. Hospitals that do not participate in RHQDAPU will receive a reduction of 2% in their annual payment update. Details
Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA)
In December 2002, The American Hospital Association (AHA), the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH), and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) launched national voluntary initiative to collect and report hospital quality performance information. This effort makes critical information about hospital performance accessible to the public and encourages efforts to improve quality. Voluntary reporting is an essential first step to realize this goal. 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.
The Joint Commission (TJC) the National Quality Forum (NQF), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) support this initiative to make hospital performance information more accessible to the public, payers and providers of care. NQF, TJC, CMS, and AHRQ provide technical assistance in developing and/or identifying quality measures; and assist in making the information accessible, understandable and relevant to the public. Details