With a goal of improving the quality and efficiency of health care services and promoting value-based purchasing, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission has launched a new Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Quality and Efficiency Improvement Web site.
The Web site is designed to be a one-stop resource for information on Medicaid/CHIP quality improvement efforts and will be important to health care providers, health plans and the general public.
A number of projects are featured on the Web site that outline efforts toward quality and efficiency improvement. An example of one such project is the analysis of potentially preventable events. The Web site explains how these types of events, such as preventable emergency room visits, are analyzed. In these events, the patient receives emergency treatment for a condition that could have been treated in a non-emergency setting. The result of the analysis may be that adjustments are made to fee-for-service hospital inpatient claims.
The Web site also houses several quality reports, including the annual quality of care workbooks for all Medicaid-CHIP programs, MCO performance profiles, report cards, At-Risk and Quality Challenge results and other items. The quality of care workbook is able to compare different regions of Texas in relation to a number of quality and utilization measures. There is information on super-utilizer management, the Choosing Wisely initiative and HHSC data-sharing efforts.
Texas HHSC will be adding additional information to the site on an ongoing basis with new interactive features. It also allows the public to submit suggestions and proposals.
You can visit their website at http://www.hhsc.state.tx.us/ or for more information or to suggestions for improvement regarding the quality Web site, email
HPCS_Quality@hhsc.state.tx.us