On January 13, 2012, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report that examined HHS contractor National Quality Forum’s (NQF) progress on quality measurement projects and HHS’s use of NQF activities in implementing quality measurement initiatives introduced by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

NQF’s work under a four-year contract includes, for example, endorsing healthcare quality measures, promoting the development and use of electronic health records (EHR), selecting measures for use in payment programs and value-based purchasing programs, and providing input on HHS’s National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Healthcare. The GAO report addressed NQF’s performance from January 2010 to August 2011.

GAO found that while NQF has completed or made progress on 60 of 63 projects, it missed deadlines on over half of the projects and exceeded cost estimates for several activities. GAO further noted that HHS did not conduct annual performance evaluations of NQF that would have assessed timeliness and cost control issues.