HJ0085 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HJ0085 LRB098 20518 GRL 56577 r

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Despite an increased focus on improving the quality of care in the United States, our nation's healthcare system often remains fractured, with misaligned payment systems, a lack of information and transparency, and gaps in care delivery; and

WHEREAS, The healthcare marketplace has traditionally rewarded our providers for the volume of care they deliver; even though utilization of healthcare is high, there are significant differences between the healthcare that should be received and the healthcare that is actually received; those gaps result in increased costs, and in some cases, harm to patients; and

WHEREAS, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act contains provisions that are facilitating a shift from volume of services provided to the value of services provided by linking provider and physician payment to quality of care and patient outcomes; and

WHEREAS, The Institute of Medicine defines healthcare quality as "the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge" and has recommended that the United States healthcare system be aligned to deliver care meeting 6 aims critical to quality improvement, including care that is safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable; and

WHEREAS, The United States Department of Health and Human Services was tasked by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to convene public and private stakeholders to establish a National Quality Strategy focused on 6 priorities: safety, care coordination, population/community health, clinical care, patient and care-giver centered experience and outcomes, and efficiency and cost reduction; public and private entities are encouraged to align their activities to reach these common aims; and

WHEREAS, Working from this common understanding of quality, experts have developed hundreds of quality measures in use today and continue to develop and refine new ones; and

WHEREAS, Measures of quality should be evidence-based, consistent with nationally-recognized practice guidelines and endorsed through a multi-stakeholder consensus-based organization (i.e., National Quality Forum); and

WHEREAS, The trends of linking quality of care to reimbursement and using quality information to inform patient choices will continue to grow as they are critically important to ensuring that healthcare reforms preserve and enhance the quality of healthcare; and

WHEREAS, Evidence-based cost and quality measures will help the healthcare system evolve from one rewarded for the volume of services to one promoting the value of services; and

WHEREAS, Because medical advances occur rapidly, quality measures need to be updated regularly to reflect the latest medical knowledge and continuous reassessment is required to avoid penalizing early adopters of care improvement and to facilitate medical innovations; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that we support the application of evidence-based multi-stakeholder endorsed (National Quality Forum) quality measures and requirements that health plans and providers report publicly on quality performance to improve patient outcomes and better inform patient choices in state Health Insurance Marketplaces and state-funded healthcare programs, including Medicaid.