Glossary

An access measure is a measure that focuses on a patient’s or enrollee’s attainment of timely and appropriate health care.

An adopted measure is a measure that has the same numerator, denominator, data source, and care setting as its parent measure. The only additional information the measure developer needs to provide is particular to the measure’s implementation use (such as data submission instructions).

Alignment, with respect to measures, as defined by the CMS consensus-based entity in its Changes to NQF’s Harmonization and Competing Measures Process  as “encouraging the use of similar, standardized performance measures across and within public and private sector efforts.” (p. 6) Achievement of alignment is when a set of measures works well across care settings or programs to produce meaningful information without creating extra work for those responsible for the measurement. Alignment includes using the same quality measures in multiple programs when possible. It can also come from consistently measuring important topics across care settings.

The appropriate use criteria are standards that are evidence-based (to the extent feasible) and assist professionals who order and furnish applicable services to make the most appropriate treatment decisions for a specific clinical condition (modified from CMS Appropriate Use Criteria Program).

Attribution is the process of linking the treatments, processes, or outcomes of care to one or more measured entity (National Quality Forum, 2021).

An audit is a systematic inspection of records or accounts to verify their accuracy.