States can increase efficiency by streamlining reporting across programs to reduce administrative costs. Standardized reporting and measurement will also enable states to better assess system-wide performance and target resources for quality improvements.

*Milestone details:

*Full name: Align reporting requirements across programs to minimize regulatory burden and administrative complexity.

*Relevance to the ACA:

Streamlining and standardization can increase system efficiency and support quality improvement. Therefore, most states will strive for this goal although there is no explicit ACA requirement to do so. Creating standardization and streamlined reporting will require forethought and negotiation because different state programs often have distinct but overlapping purposes, provide similar but not identical services, and serve groups of people with many common characteristics but some important differences. States will miss opportunities to create efficiencies across programs unless they explicitly focus on streamlining and standardization as a goal when, under the ACA, they establish exchanges, expand Medicaid, and implement new rate review processes in the commercial market. The ACA also has provisions intended to promote streamlining and standardization at the national level that will result in efficiencies at the state level, including:

§1104 – Creation of national uniform standards and operating rules for electronic transactions governed under HIPAA.

§2701 - Directs HHS to select a core set of standardized quality measures that states can use to assess the quality of care provided to adults.

§3002 - Directs HHS to plan to integrate their physician reporting and meaningful use requirements by selecting a set of quality measures that physicians can use to fulfill both responsibilities.

§3012 - Creates the Interagency Working Group on Health Care Quality which will, among other things, develop recommendations to streamline federal reporting and measurement.

§10305 - The Secretary must aggregate consistent data on quality measures from information systems used to support health care delivery and align these efforts with requirements for the expansion and interoperability of HIT systems.