Quality Measures

This chart collection examines five types of indicators: outcomes of treatment, provision of appropriate treatment, patient safety, preventive services, and health system capacity and workforce shortages. Measuring quality in health care is complex: a vast number of metrics are used to monitor health system performance since there is no singular definition of quality, and data is often limited and delayed.

This Health Policy 101 chapter explores the performance of the U.S. health system on a number of cost, outcomes, and quality measures by comparing it with those in similarly large and wealthy OECD nations. It highlights that despite significant spending, Americans have shorter life expectancies and encounter more barriers to health care, influenced by both the health system’s structure and broader socioeconomic factors.

Mergers and acquisitions involving hospitals and other health care providers are drawing attention from federal and state regulators, including the Federal Trade Commission, and policymakers amid concerns that such consolidations can reduce competition and contribute to the high costs of health care. A new KFF brief examines and summarizes the…

As policymakers and regulators pay more attention to consolidation in health care provider markets, this brief examines and summarizes the evidence about consolidation, including recent trends, the impact on prices and quality, and proposals to address consolidation and increase competition.

In September 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new opportunity for states to leverage federal funding on health care: the Advancing All-Payer Health Equity Approaches and Development (AHEAD) model. With this model, CMS – under the auspices of the CMS Innovation Center, also known as CMMI — aims to reduce the rate of growth in health care spending, improve people’s health, and reduce disparities in health outcomes. This issue brief answers some key questions about the new model and explores considerations for potential state and private participants.

This brief summarizes findings from 20 studies published between January 1, 2018 and April 1, 2023 that compare quality of care and beneficiary experiences between people of color in Medicare Advantage and White enrollees, or the total Medicare Advantage population.

With the Medicare open enrollment period set to begin Oct. 15, a perennial decision faced by Medicare beneficiaries is whether to get their coverage through traditional Medicare or the private plans known as Medicare Advantage. A new KFF review of 62 studies published since 2016 that compares Medicare Advantage and…

This literature review examines 62 studies published since 2016 that compare Medicare Advantage and traditional Medicare based on measures of beneficiary experience, affordability, service utilization, and quality.

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness and sharpened the discussion of systemic racial disparities in the U.S. health care system. These inequities existed long before the pandemic and have been recognized for decades, yet they continue and, in some cases, have worsened. Cancer consistently ranks as one of the leading…