The National Committee for Quality Assurance, along with several partners, released a draft set of six new quality measures for adolescent well-care related to chlamydia identification, tobacco use, and depression.
Once finalized, the measures will be submitted to the federal government for inclusion in the Children’s Improved Core Set, used by states in reporting quality of care for children enrolled in the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid.
The measures were developed by the National Collaborative for Innovation in Quality Measurement (NCINQ), a group led by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Other participants in the NCINQ include Nationwide Children’s Hospital, New York University, the National Partnership for Women and Families, the American Academy of Pediatrics, health plans, physician groups, and consumers.
Three of the proposed measures relate to chlamydia identification and follow-up. The measures include documenting the sexual activity of adolescent patients, performing chlamydia screening with results for female adolescents, and prescribing antibiotics for female adolescents who have a positive test result.
The draft measure set also includes two measures on tobacco use, including documentation of tobacco use among adolescents and cessation treatment for adolescent tobacco users. The consortium also drafted a measure on depression screening of adolescents.
Physicians and other members of the public have until 5 p.m. ET on May 29 to comment on the draft measure set.