Promoting Health Equity And Eliminating Disparities Through Performance Measurement And Payment

• Published in: Health Affairs Vol. 37; no. 3; pp. 371 - 377
• Main Authors: Anderson, Andrew C, O'Rourke, Erin, Chin, Marshall H, Ponce, Ninez A, Bernheim, Susannah M, Burstin, Helen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States The People to People Health Foundation, Inc., Project HOPE 01-03-2018
• Subjects: Adult; African Americans; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Blood pressure; Cardiovascular disease; Evaluation; Evidence-based medicine; Evidence-Based Practice - methods; Fairness; Health care; Health care policy; Health disparities; Health education; Health Equity; Health Expenditures; Health promotion; Healthcare Disparities - ethnology; Heart; Hispanic Americans; Hospitals; Humans; Hypertension; Hypertension - therapy; Implementation; Incentives; Inequality; Internet; Medicare; Middle Aged; Mortality; Payments; Performance evaluation; Performance measurement; Policies; Prevention; Prioritizing; Prospective payment systems; Quality; Quality assessment; Quality improvement; Quality of care; Quality of Health Care; Racial differences; Racial inequality; Reimbursement, Incentive; Roads; United States; Young Adult; United States; United States > US; Baltimore Maryland; Quality Of Care; Disparities; payment; measurement
• ISSN: 0278-2715; 1544-5208
• DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2017.1301

Current approaches to health care quality have failed to reduce health care disparities. Despite dramatic increases in the use of quality measurement and associated payment policies, there has been no notable implementation of measurement strategies to reduce health disparities. The National Quality Forum developed a road map to demonstrate how measurement and associated policies can contribute to eliminating disparities and promote health equity. Specifically, the road map presents a four-part strategy whose components are identifying and prioritizing areas to reduce health disparities, implementing evidence-based interventions to reduce disparities, investing in the development and use of health equity performance measures, and incentivizing the reduction of health disparities and achievement of health equity. To demonstrate how the road map can be applied, we present an example of how measurement and value-based payment can be used to reduce racial disparities in hypertension among African Americans.