(NCQA: Washington) -- A set of measures assessing the quality of care for HIV/AIDS patients was released recently for public comment. Developed by the National Committee for Quality Assurance in collaboration with the AMA-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and Infectious Diseases Society of America/HIV Medicine Association, the measures enable assessment of how well individual providers and health systems care for patients with HIV/AIDS.

The measures will be considered for endorsement by the National Quality Forum and for use in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Physician Quality Reporting Initiative to capture data about the quality of care delivered to people with HIV/AIDS.

“For patients with HIV or AIDS, appropriate care management and high-quality care are a matter of life or death,” says Margaret E. O’Kane, NCQA president. “These new measures will help doctors and health plans assess how well they care for HIV-positive patients, and hopefully serve as a roadmap for future quality improvement.”

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