Pay for performance and the hospital quality initiative

This paper describes the history of the Hospital Quality Initiative (HQI) and describes plans that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have for this data set. There are suggestions on how to improve physician acceptance of these benchmarks and how an institution can improve compliance rates with the data elements. There is also a discussion with respect to weaknesses and strengths of HQI. The advantages occuring to both the patient and physician when the physician participates in the HQI initiative are emphasized.