The National Committee for Quality Assurance has released its latest analysis of the state of U.S. healthcare: The State of Health Care Quality Report 2013.
NCQA President Margaret O'Kane presented the report, which she said is the main annual analysis of healthcare data the NCQA provides. All findings are based on the 2012 Healthcare and Effectiveness Data and Information Set.
"Over long periods, most measures have improved tremendously since we've started this project. They're better than 10 years ago or even five years ago," she said during a press call, noting a record 136 million Americans hold health plans reporting quality results, up from 65 million in 2005. The results of the report include:
- Stagnant or declining performance in appropriate use of antibiotics. Performance is worse than in 2006, when the measure was introduced. Given the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's recent report on drug-resistant pathogens, this is a major public health problem.
- Good progress on childhood obesity. Ms. O'Kane noted the measure has improved for two years in a row, though the complexity of the problem suggests healthcare attention is only part of the solution.
- Mixed results on childhood immunization. More children are being vaccinated for influenza and rotavirus, though rates of other critical immunizations have decreased. "This is really troubling to us, who have spent two decades collecting this information," she said. "Perhaps this trend is due to misinformation on the part of parents, such as the urban legend out there that vaccines cause autism." Ms. O'Kane noted vaccination rates decreased in 2009 and have since remained under 2008 levels.
- Decrease in substance abuse treatment. The proportion of chemically dependent people has decreased over the last several years, especially for people in Medicare plans.
- Better experience of care in Medicaid HMOs. This includes decreases in death rates from preventable harms, decreases of potentially harmful drug-disease interactions in the elderly and increases in beta blockers for heart attack patients. It also includes increases in physician ratings, for which Medicaid leads gains, with a 1.3 percent increase in patients giving their physicians the highest possible satisfaction rating.
Ms. O'Kane went on to comment these results are useful for insurance plans for benchmarking and for healthcare professionals explaining healthcare to patients and consumers.
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