Agencies award grants to test PQMP pediatric quality measures

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today awarded $13.4 million in grants to implement and test new pediatric quality measures. The six recipients will assess the feasibility and usability of the measures at the state, health plan and provider levels. “The [Pediatric Quality Measures Program] Centers of Excellence provided us with valid measures of children’s health care quality,” said AHRQ Director Andy Bindman, M.D. “This next step of research will help us test these measures in real-world settings. The ultimate goal is to improve children’s health through better health care, at lower costs, at both the federal and state level.” The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act created the PQMP to increase the portfolio of evidence-based, consensus pediatric quality measures available to public and private purchasers of children’s health care services. Today’s grants were funded by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.