The National Collaborative for Innovation in Quality Measurement: Implementing and Improving (NCINQ II) is a consortium committed to improving behavioral health care and outcomes for youth and families. NCINQ was one of the original centers in the AHRQ Pediatric Quality Measures Program. Our project will focus on implementing and improving the antipsychotic medication management and depression care measures we developed; two of these measures are in or recommended for the Core Set of Children?s Health Care Quality Measures for Medicaid/CHIP and all are included in national HEDIS reporting for commercial and Medicaid health plans. Antipsychotic medications are indicated for a limited range of mental health problems among children and youth and come with a potential for serious side effects with life-long consequences. Use is more common among children and youth in Medicaid and foster care, and our prior work showed that care is not consistent with guidelines. Depression is a common and disabling condition among adolescents that contributes to life-long social impairments and educational limitations. Implementation of standardized methods to screen and monitor adolescents with depression is mediocre, thus contributing to poor outcomes. Our overall goal is to improve health outcomes for children, adolescents, and their families. Our specific approach will be to demonstrate collaborative and reproducible approaches to improve quality for youth with behavioral health problems, enhance measures addressing depression and antipsychotic medication management, and disseminate findings and lessons via the extensive NCINQ II network of states, plans, provider groups and youth/family advocates. NCINQ II will convene two learning collaboratives that will involve our core team at National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), New York University, and Youth MOVE, as well as four states and nine health plans. Further, our Collaborative Advisory Panel will include additional state officials, youth/family advisors, pediatric leaders, an EQRO, and other experts. Because involvement of youth and family perspectives is a core component of NCINQ II, we will take extra steps to create genuine partnerships that foster a deeper level of engagement. We will also demonstrate innovative methods for incorporating digital health and electronic data sources into quality measurement and improvement. At the end of this four-year project, we will have refined measure specifications, guidance for successful approaches to quality improvement, reports on successes and challenges of quality measurement and improvement, and recommendations to guide policy decisions on measure reporting/accountability.
The National Collaborative for Innovation in Quality Measurement: Implementing and Improving (NCINQ II) is a consortium of states, plans, youth/family advocates, researchers, providers and other stakeholders committed to improving behavioral health care and outcomes for youth and families. We will demonstrate collaborative and reproducible approaches to improve antipsychotic medication management and depression care by convening two learning collaboratives focused on health plans and involving youth/family advisors; enhance quality measures for behavioral health care; and disseminate findings and lessons via the extensive NCINQ network. Because involvement of youth and family perspectives is a core component of NCINQ II, we will take extra steps to create genuine partnerships that foster a deeper level of engagement.
