Quality Care for Moms and Babies Act

Bill: 113-hr-896
Sponsor: Rep. Engel, Eliot L. [D-NY-16]
Introduced: 2013-02-28 in the House
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Child health
Government information and archives
Health care costs and insurance
Health care quality
Health facilities and institutions
Health information and medical records
Health programs administration and funding
Medicaid
State and local government operations
Women's health

Summary:
action_date: 2013-02-28
text: 
Quality Care for Moms and Babies Act - Amends title XI of the Social Security Act (SSA) to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), as part of the pediatric quality measures program and the Medicaid Quality Measurement Program (MQMP), to: (1) review certain quality measures endorsed under the Medicare program that relate to the care of childbearing women and newborns, particularly with respect to their application to the programs under SSA title XIX (Medicaid) and XXI (State Children's Health Insurance Program) (CHIP), identifying omissions and deficiencies in such applications; (2) develop and publish a set of maternity care quality measures for the Medicaid and CHIP programs in accordance with specified requirements; and (3) review the Mother and Infant Care (MIC) quality measures and develop, on an ongoing basis, any modifications of, or additions to, them that reflect the development, testing, validation, and consensus process.
 
Directs the Secretary to enter into grants, contracts, or intergovernmental agreements with qualified measure development entities to: (1) identify quality of care issues that are not adequately addressed by the MIC quality measures; and (2) develop, test, and validate modifications of such measures.
 
Requires a qualified measure development entity with such a grant, contract, or intergovernmental agreement to consult with voluntary consensus standards setting organizations and other organizations involved in the advancement of evidence-based measures of health to create, as part of the MIC quality measures, eMeasures (for which measurement data, including clinical data, will be collected electronically) aligned with the measures developed under the pediatric quality measures program and the MQMP. 
Requires the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to adapt the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems program surveys of providers, facilities, and health plans to ensure that the adapted surveys are effective in measuring aspects of care that childbearing women and newborns experience.
 
Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to eligible entities to support: (1) the development of new state and regional maternity care quality collaboratives; (2) expanded activities of existing maternity care quality collaboratives; and (3) maternity care initiatives within established state and regional quality collaboratives that are not focused exclusively on maternity care.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2013-03-01
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
action_date: 2013-02-28
text: Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
action_date: 2013-02-28
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2013-02-28
text: Introduced in House