Center for Consumers of Healthcare (CCH)

What we'll be doing

 

We'll be taking a good hard look at the draft policies and measures and sharing what we find.
Our focus is on addressing the issues and finding solutions that meet the needs of everyone.

We think of everyone as consumers of healthcare - as patients, as workers, as people who buy insurance, as taxpayers. As healthcare professionals, we are consumers of the policies and measures that are created and used by payers. They affect our daily work - and our payment! When we see a professional for our health needs, we become patient-consumers.

What's Coming Up Next?

We are entering the "wild rapids" phase of quality measures and public comments.

Medicare publishes their draft policies and measures starting now through July. We should see Hospital Proposed Rule soon. It will be interesting to see what they do with the NQF MAP recommnedations for measures.

For NQF - In April we are expecting a draft report on Pulmonary measures - asthma, COPD/Emphysema, Pneumonia and others. In June, the report on Patient Centered Outcomes is due out; it will be follewed by work on measures.

NCQA has some material out for comment now. We'll get a summary out with comments and links later the week of March 19.

AHRQ has been busy also!

Clinical Conditions

We will have been looking at top priority clinical conditions, the gaps in care, the current peformance measures and areas where new work is needed. This prepares us to comment on the work being done by Medicare and NQF to improve care for the conditions that affect the largest number of people, in all clinical settings.

These are some of the conditions we have already developed material on and will be posting and updating in the coming weeks.

  • Atrial Fibrillation
  • Asthma
  • Blood clots (VTE)
  • COPD/Emphysema
  • Diabetes
  • Heart Disease
  • Mental Health
  • Neurologic conditions

Hello - This part of the website is Under Construction!

We're in the process of rebuilding this website, converting our webpages from the old website to our new format - and updating the measures. We're getting ready for the new draft policies, measures and comparative effectiveness reports that are starting to be released.

We decided to present a portion of the website now as part of the Blog- so that we could get the word out about the NQF Complications Draft Report and get comments in by March 19. So please bear with us - and check back as things develop. Center for Consumers of Healthcare (CCH)-Blog

We need your comments now.

PUBLIC COMMENTS ARE DUE BY MARCH 19.

Our challenge is to review the draft material, summarize the issues, get them out for you to look at - and send them off to the groups and individuals who might have personal experience that relates to the topic. We are trying t match the requests for public comment with the people who have something to share.

We are firm believers in the value of as much public input that we can muster. This comes from personal experience developing state and national policies on healtcare. Despite what we thought was incredible advance discussion of issues with as many people and experts and patients, the public comments always brought in things we had never consider. The public comments always improved the final product.

With all the changes coming in healthcare and the interest in patient-centered care, there has never been a time when public input has been more important. .

What is included in our work

This is really a complex center and ambitious work. There is much to do to provide information about healthcare issues so that public comments are more meaningful. In the future, we plan to help prepare consumers for a more active role in national, regional and state workgroups discussing policy issues, performance measures, clinical guidelines and more. We will start with the basics and build!

These are the sections of the website that will provide information and resources on topics of current interest - topics under active discussion.

Who's Who - Who Are the PlayersThere are many different groups or "stakeholders" involved in creating new healthcare policies and performance measures. We will introduce the players - those who pay for healthcare (insurers/payers), those who purchase insurance (employers), those who provide care and those who use it.
Current Issues Some of the current issues to explore are Readmissions to hospitals, preventing complications, improving health of patients, better communication between patients and professionals, smoother transitions of care for patients between between healthcare settings - between hospitals, home care, nursing homes and our private physician/NP/PA. There are patient-centered issues - outcomes research, revising the healthcare system and preparing patients for a more active, equal role in the whole scheme of things.
Measuring the Quality and Safety of Care.We used to talk about "quality measures" but now we look at patient safety, quality of care and efficiency of care. Performance measures will be an important part of future payment systems that combine controlling costs without sacrificing the quality or safety of the care.
Patient-Consumer IssuesPatients have known about the issues with healthcare and the gaps between experience and good quality of care. The healthcare system is starting to focus on learning more about the patient experience, what patients think, want and need for better healthcare. There is also a gap in knowledge of healthcare system and healthcare problems - we need to fill that gap. It will require changes for patients and healthcare professionals and healthcare institutions.

 

Last Updated: March 13, 2012.