H.R. 7067 · 110th Congress

Quality FIRST (From Incentives, Reporting, Standards, and Technology) Act of 2008

Stage
In committee
Introduced
2008-09-25
Latest action
2008-09-25 · Introduced in House

Summary

Quality FIRST (From Incentives, Reporting, Standards, and Technology) Act of 2008 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make performance-based payments each fiscal year to hospitals that provide high quality inpatient hospital services to inpatients entitled to benefits under Medicare part A (Hospital Insurance).

Requires the Secretary to select appropriate evidence-based and statistically valid quality measures of care furnished by hospitals in inpatient settings for evaluating hospital performance.

Requires a utilization and quality control peer review organization to give priority of quality improvement assistance to low-performing hospitals.

Directs the Secretary to establish a program under which a hospital seeking to improve the quality of inpatient hospital services based on the results of a performance evaluation may apply to the Secretary to receive quality improvement assistance from a private quality organization with expertise in supporting inpatient service quality improvement.