Improving Quality/Health System Performance

• Establishing a Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research within the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to conduct research, support, and synthesize research on outcomes, effectiveness, and appropriateness of health care services and procedures.
• Increasing Medicaid payments for primary care providers and providing Medicare bonus payments to primary care practitioners to strengthen primary care and care coordination.
• Conduct pilot programs through Medicare and Medicaid to test payment incentive models for accountable care organizations and bundling of post-acute care payments and to assess feasibility of reimbursing qualified patient-centered medical homes.
• Improve coordination of care for dual eligibilities.
• Establish the Center for Quality Improvement to implement best practices in the delivery of health care services.
• Require disclosure of financial relationships between health entiities.
• Reduce racial and ethnic disparities.

Information cited from:
Kaiser Family Foundation (October 15, 2009). Health Care Reform Proposals. Retrieved from http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/healthreform_tri_full.pdf.

Bina Solanky