Quality Reporting and Improvement
HQSI helps hospitals fulfill the requirements of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Inpatient and Outpatient Hospital Quality Reporting Programs. As the federally-designated Quality Improvement Organization for New Jersey, HQSI provides technical assistance to all New Jersey Medicare-participating hospitals for reporting inpatient and outpatient quality data to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requires Inpatient Prospective Payment System acute care hospitals to report a series of quality measures that relate to services provided in acute hospitals. Hospitals that fail to meet these quality data reporting requirements have their Medicare payment update reduced by a specific percentage each year. For the past 5 years, all New Jersey hospitals have received full payment updates.
Assistance includes support for the accurate transmission of data to the Quality Improvement Organization clinical warehouse in support of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Quality Reporting Programs. Hospitals also receive assistance with implementing and monitoring quality improvement efforts and education about the following quality reporting topics:
- Hospital Inpatient and Outpatient Reporting
- My QualityNet
- Value Based Purchasing
- Decreasing Readmissions
The hospital quality of care information gathered through the initiative is available to consumers on the Hospital Compare website. Hospital Compare is intended to equip consumers with quality of care information to make more informed decisions about their healthcare, while encouraging hospitals and clinicians to improve the quality of services provided to all patients.
