Measuring quality of care under Medicare and Medicaid.

The Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) approach to measuring quality of care uses an accepted definition of quality, explicit domains of measurement, and a formal validation procedure that includes face validity, construct validity, reliability, clinical validation, and tests for usefulness. The indicators of quality for Medicare and Medicaid patients span the range of service types, medical conditions, and payment systems and rest on a variety of data systems. Some have already been incorporated into operational systems while others are scheduled for incorporation over the next 3 years.