Unless Congress acts, NQF funding will expire

If Congress doesn't act, funding for the National Quality Forum could run out and potentially jeopardize the country's transition to value-based care, according to the CEOs of five physician groups.

The leaders, whose five organizations represent about 500,000 of the country’s more than 800,000 practicing physicians, called on Congress to appropriate the $30 million annual in funding for the NQF that will allow it to continue its work.

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The NQF is the nation’s resource for quality measurement and is addressing physician concerns about coming up with quality measures that are relevant to patient care, they said in a Health Affairs Blog post

“At a time when the physician specialty societies are delving deeper into measure development and need NQF’s expertise and technical assistance more than ever, NQF’s future is in jeopardy," wrote the following CEOs: Douglas E. Henley, M.D., of the American Academy of Family Physicians; Karen Remley, M.D., of the American Academy of Pediatrics; Darilyn V. Moyer, M.D, of the American College of Physicians; Adrienne White-Faines, of the American Osteopathic Association; and Saul Levin, M.D., of the American Psychiatric Association.

 “We want to make sure that the measures get us to our number one goal of improving patient care,” they said.