Health Care Quality Measures

As part of Minnesota’s 2008 health reform law initiative, the Commissioner of Health is required to establish a standardized set of quality measures for health care providers across the state. The goal is to create a uniform approach to quality measurement to enhance market transparency and drive health care quality improvement through an evolving measurement and reporting strategy. This standardized quality measure set is called the Minnesota Statewide Quality Reporting and Measurement System. Physician clinics and hospitals have been reporting quality measures under the statewide system since 2010. Health plans may use the standardized measures and may not require providers to undertake reporting on measures outside of the system.

The Minnesota Department of Health conducts an Annual Quality Rule Update, drawing on community feedback. Quality measures must be based on medical evidence and developed through a process in which health care providers participate. Additionally, the measures must:

• Include uniform definitions, measures, and forms for submission of data, to the extent possible;
• Seek to avoid increasing the administrative burden on health care providers; and
• Place a priority on measures of health care outcomes rather than processes where possible.