Helpful Information from the National Evaluation

Helpful Information from the National Evaluation



News from the National Evaluation and the CMS Quality Conference

New Publication

“Primary Care Physicians' Experiences With and Attitudes Toward Pediatric Quality Reporting” was published in the November-December 2016 issue of Academic Pediatrics. The National Evaluation team authors reported on the results of a cross-sectional survey of pediatricians and family physicians providing primary care to publicly insured children in North Carolina and Ohio, which participated in the Demonstration, and Pennsylvania, which did not. Most of the 727 physicians responding were receiving quality reports related to pediatric care and believed that quality reports can be effective in helping guide quality improvement (QI) efforts.  However, there were no significant associations between demonstration exposure and experiences or attitudes. The authors conclude that while pediatric quality reporting is considered a promising strategy, in this study, state-led efforts appeared insufficient to overcome the barriers to using reports to guide practice-based QI.

Accompanying the article was an editorial entitled “Quality Improvement in Primary Care for Children: Interest and Desire, but Lack of Action” by Fieldstone and Hart.  In the editorial, the authors respond to the study findings and suggest that these barriers are related to insufficient knowledge and proficiency in the “language of improvement” among primary care physicians.  The authors reference supports from AHRQ that can help practices in building their QI infrastructures.  The editorial is also available on the Academic Pediatrics website. 

CMS Quality Conference Information Now Available

Video recordings of the Medicaid/CHIP mini-plenary sessions from the 2016 CMS Quality Conference are now available for on-demand viewing through the links below or at the Releases and Announcements page on Medicaid.gov. You may also access supporting materials for those sessions at the links, including slides, transcripts, and other resources:

• Designing Quality Rating Systems in Medicaid Managed Care
• Aligning Value-based Purchasing and Quality Strategies in Medicaid and Managed Care
• Behavioral Health Homes: Improving Health for People with Serious Mental Illness

Livestreams of the grand plenaries are available at the conference website. Presentations from all break-out sessions will be posted on the conference website by January 31, 2017.

If you have any questions or comments, please email MACQualityTA@cms.hhs.gov.

For more information on AHRQ’s role in CHIPRA, visit http://www.ahrq.gov/policymakers/chipra/index.html.

For more information on the CHIPRA Quality Demonstration Grant projects and the national evaluation, visit: http://www.ahrq.gov/policymakers/chipra/demoeval/index.html.