Federal effort to align quality measures won’t be easy

While much of the attention this week from the Trump administration’s executive order on transparency focused on prices, there’s also a section of it that calls for alignment of quality measures across all federal healthcare programs. Provider stakeholders and quality researchers support the effort but say it will be a heavy lift.

Tucked within the executive order, the administration notes that HHS, the Defense Department and the Veterans Affairs Department in the next six months will develop a strategy, called the Health Quality Roadmap, that will detail plans to consolidate quality measures publicly reported across Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the health insurance marketplace, the Military Health System and the VA health system. Additionally, the...