Quality health care for people with Medicare is a high priority
for President Bush, the Department of Health and Human Services,
and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). In
November 2001, Secretary Thompson announced the Quality Initiative,
his commitment to assure quality health care for all Americans
through accountability and public disclosure.
The initiative aims to:
empower consumers with quality of care information to make
more informed decisions about their health care, and
stimulate and support providers and clinicians to improve
the quality of health care.
The Quality Initiative was launched nationally in November 2002
for nursing homes (the Nursing Home Quality Initiative), and has
been expanded in 2003 to the nation’s home health care agencies
(the Home Health
Quality Initiative) and hospitals (the Hospital Quality Initiative).
In 2002, about 3.5 million elderly and disabled Americans received
care from over 7,000 Medicare-certified home health agencies.
Home health care is care provided to people who have a medical
need for skilled care. A home health agency offers health care
and personal care to patients at home, and in many cases, teaches
them to care for themselves.
