The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Network of Quality Improvement and Innovation Contractors (NQIIC) was established to support quality improvement efforts across care settings and programs, using data to drive change and add value to taxpayers.
NQIICs drive quality improvement initiatives and innovations at the local, state and regional levels, which contributes to overall national health quality goals.
Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organizations (QIN-QIOs) support nursing homes, health care providers and community coalitions serving rural and underserved areas. QIN-QIOs also assist nursing homes with their pandemic response and emergency preparedness.
Hospital Quality Improvement Contractors (HQICs) support small, rural and critical access hospitals and those that care for the vulnerable and underserved. HQICs also receive assistance with pandemic response and emergency preparedness.
American Indian/Alaska Native Healthcare Quality Initiative (AIHQI) supports 25 small, rural and critical access hospitals and those that care for the vulnerable and underserved through the Indian Health Service.
SUPPORT Act Section 6052 Contractor supports the CMS-led initiative, required in the SUPPORT Act (PL 115-271), to provide technical assistance to qualified providers to help reduce high-risk opioid prescribing behaviors, thereby contributing to combatting the opioid epidemic.
The NQIIC Program Priorities are integrated with and framed by the Three Tenets of the CMS Quality Strategy:
1) improve the quality and affordability of health care for all Americans; 2) drive American health care towards payment for value, not volume; and 3) lower the rate of growth in America’s health care spending.
The CMS Quality Strategy Goals are:
Make care safer by reducing harm caused in delivery of care.
Strengthen person and family engagement as partners in their care.
Promote effective communication and coordination of care.
Promote effective prevention and treatment of chronic disease.
Work with communities to promote best practices of healthy living.
Make care affordable.
