Hospital rate increases shall be made contingent upon hospital adherence to quality standards and achievement of performance benchmarks, including the reduction of racial and ethnic disparities in the provision of health care. Such benchmarks shall be developed or adopted by the executive office of health and human services so as to advance a common national framework for quality measurement and reporting, drawing on measures that are approved by the National Quality Forum and adopted by the Hospitals Quality Alliance and other national groups concerned with quality, in addition to the Boston Public Health Commission Disparities Project Hospital Working Group Report Guidelines. The office of Medicaid shall consult with the Massachusetts health care quality and cost council, established under section 16K of chapter 6A and the MassHealth payment policy advisory board established under section 16M of said chapter 6A, during the process of developing these quality standards and performance benchmarks.
Allows for higher Medicaid reimbursement rates to hospitals that meet certain quality standards and performance benchmarks.
M.G.L. Chapter 118E, section 13B; added by section 25 of Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006