CONTRACT WITH A CONSENSUS-BASED ENTITY REGARDING PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT.

SEC. 183. CONTRACT WITH A CONSENSUS-BASED ENTITY REGARDING PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT.(a) Contract.—122 STAT. 2584(1) In general.—Part E of title XVIII of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 1889 the following new section:“contract with a consensus-based entity regarding performance measurement“Sec. 1890. (a) Contract.—“(1) In general.—For purposes of activities conducted under this Act, the Secretary shall identify and have in effect a contract with a consensus-based entity, such as the National Quality Forum, that meets the requirements described in subsection (c). Such contract shall provide that the entity will perform the duties described in subsection (b).“(2) Timing for first contract.—As soon as practicable after the date of the enactment of this subsection, the Secretary shall enter into the first contract under paragraph (1).“(3) Period of contract.—A contract under paragraph (1) shall be for a period of 4 years (except as may be renewed after a subsequent bidding process).“(4) Competitive procedures.—Competitive procedures (as defined in section 4(5) of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 403(5))) shall be used to enter into a contract under paragraph (1).“(b) Duties.—The duties described in this subsection are the following:“(1) Priority setting process.—The entity shall synthesize evidence and convene key stakeholders to make recommendations, with respect to activities conducted under this Act, on an integrated national strategy and priorities for health care performance measurement in all applicable settings. In making such recommendations, the entity shall—“(A) ensure that priority is given to measures—“(i) that address the health care provided to patients with prevalent, high-cost chronic diseases;“(ii) with the greatest potential for improving the quality, efficiency, and patient-centeredness of health care; and“(iii) that may be implemented rapidly due to existing evidence, standards of care, or other reasons; and“(B) take into account measures that—“(i) may assist consumers and patients in making informed health care decisions;“(ii) address health disparities across groups and areas; and“(iii) address the continuum of care a patient receives, including services furnished by multiple health care providers or practitioners and across multiple settings.“(2) Endorsement of measures.—The entity shall provide for the endorsement of standardized health care performance measures. The endorsement process under the preceding sentence shall consider whether a measure—“(A) is evidence-based, reliable, valid, verifiable, relevant to enhanced health outcomes, actionable at the caregiver level, feasible to collect and report, and responsive to variations in patient characteristics, such as health 122 STAT. 2585 status, language capabilities, race or ethnicity, and income level; and“(B) is consistent across types of health care providers, including hospitals and physicians.“(3) Maintenance of measures.—The entity shall establish and implement a process to ensure that measures endorsed under paragraph (2) are updated (or retired if obsolete) as new evidence is developed.“(4) Promotion of the development of electronic health records.—The entity shall promote the development and use of electronic health records that contain the functionality for automated collection, aggregation, and transmission of performance measurement information.“(5) Annual report to congress and the secretary; secretarial publication and comment.—“(A) Annual report.—By not later than March 1 of each year (beginning with 2009), the entity shall submit to Congress and the Secretary a report containing a description of—“(i) the implementation of quality measurement initiatives under this Act and the coordination of such initiatives with quality initiatives implemented by other payers;“(ii) the recommendations made under paragraph (1); and“(iii) the performance by the entity of the duties required under the contract entered into with the Secretary under subsection (a).“(B) Secretarial review and publication of annual report.—Not later than 6 months after receiving a report under subparagraph (A) for a year, the Secretary shall—“(i) review such report; and“(ii) publish such report in the Federal Register, together with any comments of the Secretary on such report.“(c) Requirements Described.—The requirements described in this subsection are the following:“(1) Private nonprofit.—The entity is a private nonprofit entity governed by a board.“(2) Board membership.—The members of the board of the entity include—“(A) representatives of health plans and health care providers and practitioners or representatives of groups representing such health plans and health care providers and practitioners;“(B) health care consumers or representatives of groups representing health care consumers; and“(C) representatives of purchasers and employers or representatives of groups representing purchasers or employers.“(3) Entity membership.—The membership of the entity includes persons who have experience with—“(A) urban health care issues;“(B) safety net health care issues;“(C) rural and frontier health care issues; and“(D) health care quality and safety issues.122 STAT. 2586“(4) Open and transparent.—With respect to matters related to the contract with the Secretary under subsection (a), the entity conducts its business in an open and transparent manner and provides the opportunity for public comment on its activities.“(5) Voluntary consensus standards setting organization.—The entity operates as a voluntary consensus standards setting organization as defined for purposes of section 12(d) of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (Public Law 104–113) and Office of Management and Budget Revised Circular A–119 (published in the Federal Register on February 10, 1998).“(6) Experience.—The entity has at least 4 years of experience in establishing national consensus standards.“(7) Membership fees.—If the entity requires a membership fee for participation in the functions of the entity, such fees shall be reasonable and adjusted based on the capacity of the potential member to pay the fee. In no case shall membership fees pose a barrier to the participation of individuals or groups with low or nominal resources to participate in the functions of the entity.“(d) Funding.—For purposes of carrying out this section, the Secretary shall provide for the transfer, from the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund under section 1817 and the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund under section 1841 (in such proportion as the Secretary determines appropriate), of $10,000,000 to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Program Management Account for each of fiscal years 2009 through 2012.” .(2) Sense of the senate.—It is the Sense of the Senate that the selection by the Secretary of Health and Human Services of an entity to contract with under section 1890(a) of the Social Security Act, as added by paragraph (1), should not be construed as diminishing the significant contributions of the Boards of Medicine, the quality alliances, and other clinical and technical experts to efforts to measure and improve the quality of health care services.(b) GAO Study and Reports on the Performance and Costs of the Consensus-Based Entity Under the Contract.—(1) In general.—The Comptroller General of the United States shall conduct a study on—(A) the performance of the entity with a contract with the Secretary of Health and Human Services under section 1890(a) of the Social Security Act, as added by subsection (a), of its duties under such contract; and(B) the costs incurred by such entity in performing such duties.(2) Reports.—Not later than 18 months and 36 months after the effective date of the first contract entered into under such section 1890(a), the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a report containing the results of the study conducted under paragraph (1), together with recommendations for such legislation and administrative action as the Comptroller General determines appropriate.122 STAT. 2587