The National Quality Forum

“The national quality forum has over 430 member organizations. They represent all sectors in the healthcare quality landscape including: consumers; public and private purchasers; physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals; hospitals, nursing homes, and other provider organizations; accrediting and certifying bodies; supporting industries; and healthcare research and quality improvement organizations.”

“The organization's form 990 undergoes a number of internal and external reviews before it is filed with the irs. The return is prepared by the organization's public accounting firm, bdo usa. A final draft of the form 990 is then provided to each member of the organization's board of directors for review and comment, before it is filed with the irs.”

“On an annual basis, conflict of interest forms are sent to board members and staff to complete. The general counsel reviews conflict of interest forms submitted by board members and board members orally disclose any relavant information annually in a public board session. Employee conflict of interest forms are screened by the human resources department and any disclosures made by employees are referred to the general counsel for follow-up and resolution.”

“The executive committee, comprised of independent members of the board of directors, determines the ceo's compensation package by using comparable data approved by the entire board. Contemporaneous substantiation of the deliberation and decision is also maintained. The ceo determines the salaries of other officers and key employee based on outside comparability data and the results are documented in personnel files.”

“The organization makes its governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements available to the public upon request.”

“THE NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM (NQF) IS A UNIQUE, MULTI-STAKEHOLDER ORGANIZATION INSTRUMENTAL IN ADVANCING EFFORTS TO IMPROVE HEALTHCARE QUALITY THROUGH PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT AND PUBLIC REPORTING. NQF IS A NOT-FOR-PROFIT MEMBERSHIP ORGANIZATION WITH MORE THAN 400 MEMBERS REPRESENTING VIRTUALLY EVERY SECTOR OF THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM. NQF's MISSION IS TO LEAD NATIONAL COLLABORATION TO IMPROVE HEALTH AND HEALTHCARE QUALITY THROUGH MEASUREMENT.”

“MEASURE ENDORSEMENT AND MEASUREMENT SCIENCE NQF reviews and endorses healthcare performance measures that underpin federal and private-sector initiatives focused on enhancing the value of healthcare services. In concert with others, NQF has contributed to a more information-rich healthcare system, and demonstrated that measures-particularly in tandem with delivery changes and payment reform-can lead to improvement in performance. NQF's endorsement projects use volunteer committees of experts from the public and private sectors-including physicians, consumers, and purchasers, as well as representatives of hospitals, health plans, and healthcare suppliers-to review and endorse measures of quality, cost, and efficiency. In 2014, NQF endorsed/re-endorsed 98 measures, bringing its portfolio to more than 600 measures for use in public reporting, payment, and care delivery reform programs. NQF also removed 93 measures -approximately 15 percent of its portfolio-further streamlining its measurement set. This year, NQF endorsed measures that will help the nation accomplish the following goals: 1) Drive the system to be more responsive to patient/ family needs-NQF conducted Person- and Family-Centered Care and Care Coordination endorsement projects, which included patient-reported outcomes and patient experience surveys. The endorsed measures are part of federal quality reporting programs such as Hospital Compare, Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR), and the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS). 2) Improve care for highly prevalent conditions- NQF's Cardiovascular, Endocrine, and Musculoskeletal endorsement projects yielded endorsed measures that are integral part of the Hospital IQR program and of PQRS. 3) Emphasize cross-cutting areas to foster better care and coordination-NQF's Behavioral Health and Patient Safety endorsement projects endorsed measures that are used in the Home Health Quality Reporting Program, Hospital IQR program, the Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Quality Reporting program, and PQRS. 4) Support new accountability efforts coming online- NQF reviewed measures of Cost/Resource Use and Readmission. CMS' Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program and Physician Value Based Payment Modifier program include measures endorsed in these projects. Performance measurement has become more sophisticated but remains a developing science. NQF's work helps drive this progress. Over the last few years, NQF has doubled the proportion of outcome measures in its portfolio to 34 percent. NQF is also facilitating the transition to electronic quality measurement by endorsing eMeasures that take advantage of new electronic sources of clinical information in EHRs. With the support of federal funds in 2014, NQF charted a path forward with an approach to adjusting measures for socio economic status (SES) and other demographic factors. The NQF trial of SES risk-adjusted measures will be completed in 2016, at which time the organization will evaluate the trial outcomes and decide whether to permanently change its policy. In 2014, NQF also completed groundbreaking work in defining what criteria to use in evaluating episode groupers and how to risk adjust resource use measures. Private foundation support allowed NQF to convene an expert committee to 4) in defining how to link cost and quality measures and how to define affordability from the patient's perspective. These efforts will become increasingly important as more individuals move into high deductible plans and public or private exchanges, and seek information on both cost and quality.”

“USE OF MEASURES TO IMPROVE QUALITY In addition to its work endorsing measures and improving the science of measurement, NQF focuses on use of measures to improve quality at the patient and population levels. NQF convened its Measure Applications Partnership (MAP) for the third year in a row to evaluate all of the measures that CMS was considering for 20-plus federal programs. CMS seeks MAP's advice and buy-in on which measures to use in particular programs in advance of issuing related regulations. In 2014, MAP reviewed 234 unique measures under consideration for hospital, clinician, post-acute care and long-term care programs, many of which were under consideration for multiple programs (which nearly doubled the number of measures reviewed by MAP). In the 2014 pre-rulemaking report, MAP gave 75 recommendations of full "support" for measures for use in a given federal program. MAP also facilitates consensus between the public and private sectors around how to align "like measures" that are being used in more than one federal program, with the goal of paring down many measures to an essential few. Private sector leaders participating in MAP are also encouraged to use the same measures in their own programs. MAP's efforts help to reduce duplication and administrative burden within the federal sector, and to some degree, across the public and private sectors. Expanding its work on measures of quality of care for low-income and vulnerable populations, MAP provided input to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on a core set of healthcare measures used to monitor and improve the quality of services provided to children enrolled in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). MAP also completed its second report on measures to improve care for Medicaid-eligible adults, and issued new report on improving care for Americans who are eligible to be covered by both Medicare and Medicaid. As part of this work, NQF will begin gathering stakeholder experience in applying performance measures in Medicare and Medicaid programs to inform future recommendations to HHS. MAP will continue its efforts to align, when possible and appropriate, key measures across the Medicaid Adult and Child Core Sets as well as measures related to Medicare-Medicaid dual eligible beneficiaries. To spur consolidated action towards improving quality at the community level, NQF launched in 2014 its Population Health Framework project, an important initiative to strengthen population health efforts in communities across the country. A key outgrowth of this initiative, the Guide for Community Action1.0 is a handbook designed to support individuals and groups working together at all levels-local, state and national-to successfully promote and improve population health over time. Ten groups located around the nation tested the guide in their population health work and provided feedback and improvements to make it more relevant and actionable. The 2.0 version of the guide was published in July 2015.”

“NQF worked with healthcare stakeholders to examine initiatives involving patients, community health, public reporting and the study of anti-biotics.”

“The other program services include conferences and workshops held by national quality forum.”

“Joyce dubow - member of the board of the informed patient institute carol cronin - the executive director of the informed patient institute elizabeth mitchell - the ceo of nrhi. Jim chase and louise probst are on the nrhi board.”