Better Quality Information to Improve Care for Medicare Beneficiaries Project

The Better Quality Information to Improve Care for Medicare Beneficiaries Project (BQI Project) is part of HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt's Value-driven Health Care Initiative which is based on the following four cornerstones announced in President Bush's Executive Order issued August, 2006:

• Adopt interoperable health information technology (health IT)
• Measure and publish quality information
• Measure and publish transparency of price information
• Promote quality and efficiency of care

The BQI project also aims to provide the most effective methods to aggregate Medicare claims data with claims data from other payers, including employers, health insurance plans and in some case Medicaid programs. The goal is to find methods that will allow for the production of more accurate measures of the quality of services being provided by physicians to people with Medicare. Combining public and private sector claims data will create a more comprehensive view of the quality of care provided and enable Medicare beneficiaries to make more informed health care decisions.

The results of the BQI Project will be used for two primary purposes: first, to provide performance information to physicians that will assist them in improving the quality of care they are delivering to Medicare beneficiaries; and second, to give physician performance information to Medicare beneficiaries in order to help them with physician selection. The BQI project will give Medicare beneficiaries a broad overview of provider performance resulting in better choices in meeting their health care needs. Spurred by proactive leadership from physicians and others in the health care community, the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ), one of the six regional collaboratives, will also provide information to Medicare on the best practices for data collection, aggregation, and reporting.

Follow this link to the CMS website at www.cms.hhs.gov/bqi/ where you will find the performance data for the healthcare organizations that are members of the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality. Five measures of quality were conducted utilizing all of the data available to the healthcare organizations to provide a clear representation of the care being given to all patients (not just those with Medicare). If you have questions, please contact us at atopel@wchq.org