United States. Congress

“ IDENTIFICATION- The Secretary, in consultation with the Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, shall identify, not less often than triennially, gaps where no quality measures exist and existing quality measures that need improvement, updating, or expansion, consistent with the national strategy under section 399HH, to the extent available, for use in Federal health programs. ”

“ In General- The Secretary shall collect and aggregate consistent data on quality and resource use measures from information systems used to support health care delivery to implement the public reporting of performance information, as described in section 399JJ, and may award grants or contracts for this purpose. The Secretary shall ensure that such collection, aggregation, and analysis systems span an increasingly broad range of patient populations, providers, and geographic areas over time. ”

“ REQUIREMENTS- The Secretary shall ensure that priorities identified under subparagraph (A) will-- ` (i) have the greatest potential for improving the health outcomes, efficiency, and patient-centeredness of health care for all populations, including children and vulnerable populations; ` (ii) identify areas in the delivery of health care services that have the potential for rapid improvement in the quality and efficiency of patient care; ` (iii) address gaps in quality, efficiency, comparative effectiveness information, and health outcomes measures and data aggregation techniques ”