Much attention has aided measurement and improvement in the quality of health care during the past two decades, with new ways to define and measure quality, recognition that doing so can identify strategies to enhance care, and systematic efforts by both government and private insurers to apply these principles. In this article, James Perrin reviews these gains. Although children have benefited, these quality measurement efforts have focused mainly on adult health care. Now, two recent federal programs promise to expand quality measurement of child health care.
Enacted in 2009, the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act provides systematic support for efforts to develop and implement a set of child health quality measures.