The federal Agency for Healthcare Research Quality is starting to develop criteria for measuring the quality of health care for children and babies.
The new Pediatric Quality Measures Program will develop quality indicators that could be useful to private insurers, health care providers and public health programs as well as to consumers, according to AHRQ officials.
The AHRQ, an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will start a 2-day PQMP meeting Feb. 24 at its offices in Rockville, Md.
Grant winners and contract winners will be helping the AHRQ develop the new quality measures. At the Feb. 24 meeting, invited speakers and members of the public will talk about the criteria that ought to apply to the work of the grant winners and contract winners.
Congress required a provision requiring the HHS to start the pediatric measures program in the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009. The government is supposed to have a set of pediatric measures ready for general use by Jan. 1, 2013.
The measures will cover matters such as preventive services, treatment of acute and chronic conditions, services for children with special needs, and health coverage.
The AHRQ is working on the measures program with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the CHIPRA Federal Quality Workgroup
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