Pediatric oral health performance measurement: Current capabilities and future directions

This paper offers an overview of performance measurement in health care, pr ovides a synopsis of the findings and recommendations of an Oral Health Exp ert Panel organized by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) under contract with the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), and di scusses challenges and possible future directions for pediatric oral health care performance measures development. Existing performance measures for p ediatric oral health care are extremely limited; however, several new measu res have been proposed and are in various stages of development and testing . Measures capable of being implemented in the short-term focus on access a nd use of services, rely on administrative data sources, and represent refi nements and enhancements of current measures. Measures proposed for future implementation focus more on the effectiveness of care, consumer assessment s of care and plan performance, and the value of services provided to enrol led children. Recommendations are targeted toward high-risk children who, f or the most part, are covered by public programs (e.g., Medicaid and the Ch ildren's Health Insurance Program). Nevertheless, the entire set of recomme nded measures is considered to be relevant to all pediatric populations and applicable to all forms of dental care coverage, including state-administe red programs and commercial third party arrangements.