Fact Sheet

HHS Secretary Leavitt Announces Plan To Share Medicare Physician Performance Measures Through Local Value Exchanges

Today, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced a plan to make Medicare performance measurement information available at the community level.

Release of Physician Performance Information Supports Value-Driven Health Care Initiative

• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will use Medicare data to generate physician quality performance measurement results.  These will be consensus-based quality measures adopted by the Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance (AQA) and endorsed by the National Quality Forum (NQF).
• This ensures that this information is available on a local level, signifying the continued importance of collaboration and helping pave the way toward creating a comprehensive, unified, and effective approach to physician quality measurement.
• The release of this quality measurement information also supports the efforts of the Value-Driven Health Care (VHC) initiative that aims to create a system of better care at lower costs.  VHC is based on Four Cornerstones: standardized, interoperable electronic health records; ways to measure and compare quality; ways to measure and compare cost; and incentives to improve quality and lower cost.

Local Value Exchanges Will Disseminate Results in Communities

• The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is developing a process to recognize organizations that support the vision of fostering health care reform at the local level by engaging providers, consumers and other key stakeholders.  These organizations will be called Value Exchanges.
• This fall, AHRQ will begin accepting applications for Chartered Value Exchanges (CVEs) from existing organizations that have been recognized as Community Leaders for Value-Driven Health Care.
• CMS will provide the results information to CVEs, which can make information available on a local or regional level.
• It is anticipated that CMS will begin providing the Medicare results by the summer of 2008. 

Combining Public and Private Data to Provide a Comprehensive Picture of Physician Quality

• CVEs will act as catalysts to bring together public- and private-sector physician measurement results to stimulate quality improvement and consumer choice in their communities.
• These organizations will be able to combine the Medicare results they receive with private-sector information generated using the same methodology, producing all-payer physician performance measurement results. 
• Ultimately, this will provide a more comprehensive picture of physician quality for use by consumers, providers, and other stakeholders.

Learn more about Value-Drive Health Care online at http://www.hhs.gov/valuedriven/.