CMS embodies the health care priorities and principles outlined through various initiatives and documents across CMS and the Department of Health and Human Services when developing, implementing, and evaluating the quality measures in programs. The Agency’s priorities include distilling the quality measurement portfolio to highest value measures possible and leveraging them to drive improvement in health outcomes in a way that increase person-centeredness and promotes health equity. For example, Executive Order No. 13,995, 2021, Ensuring an Equitable Pandemic Response and Recovery, provided for the creation of the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force. The Task Force is to mitigate the health inequities caused or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic but also for preventing such inequities in the future.

These national health care priorities serve as a framework for health care interested parties across the country—individuals, families, and caregivers; measured entities; employers; health insurance companies; academic researchers; and local, state, and federal governments—that helps prioritize quality measurement efforts.