National Quality Strategy

In 2022, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) launched the CMS National Quality Strategy (NQS) with the goal to help all Americans achieve optimal health and well-being. It is essential for all Americans to have a high-quality, safe, equitable, and resilient health care system. The CMS NQS has four priority areas: Outcomes and Alignment, Equity and Engagement, Safety and Resiliency, and Interoperability and Scientific Advancement. CMS leverages several approaches to achieve the goals of the NQS. The approaches include

• quality measurement
• public reporting value-based payment programs and models
• establishing health and safety standards 
• supporting quality improvement activities

The ambitious, long-term CMS NQS initiative builds on previous efforts to improve quality across the health care system. CMS will continue to incorporate lessons learned from the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, and address the urgent need for transformative action to advance a more equitable, safe, and outcomes-based health care system for all individuals.

Measure Prioritization

Quality measurement is central to the CMS NQS unifying traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Marketplace plans, and CMS Innovation Center models and demonstrations. The Meaningful Measures Initiative, launched in 2017, remains key to shaping the entire ecosystem of quality measures driving value-based care. Working as one of many initiatives and activities under the CMS NQS, the Meaningful Measures Initiative promotes innovation and modernization of all aspects of quality measurement, addressing a wide variety of settings, interested parties, and measurement requirements. The priorities of the Meaningful Measures Initiative center around high-value quality measures, alignment, person-centeredness, digitization of measures, and equity, aligning well with the CMS NQS. 

The Cascade of Meaningful Measures is a tool used by CMS to map current quality measures to the health care priorities of the Meaningful Measures 2.0 framework. This tool helps CMS to prioritize existing health care quality measures, in an effort to align or reduce measures where there are too many and identify gaps for new measure development. 

The CMS NQS and Meaningful Measures 2.0 work together to shape the entire ecosystem of quality measures driving value-based care as CMS works to ensure their measures promote person-centered, high-quality, safe, and equitable care for all.