Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today
announced the launch of a new web-based tool that will make it easier
for all Americans to monitor and measure how the nation's health care
system is performing.

The web-based tool, known as the Health System Measurement Project,
will allow policymakers, providers, and the public to develop
consistent data-driven views of changes in critical U.S. health
system indicators.
...

To access the Health System Measurement Project, go to
<https://healthmeasures.aspe.hhs.gov/>HealthMeasures.aspe.hhs.gov .

... The Project focuses on ten critical dimensions of our health care
system covering the availability, quality, and cost of care, the
overall health of Americans, and the dynamism of the system. The
Project examines the evolution of these aspects of our system over
time. It also assesses the status of these dimensions of the system
with respect to subgroups of the population, with a particular
emphasis on vulnerable populations.

... One important purpose of the Project is to track the consequences of implementation
of The Affordable Care Act across this broad set of dimensions of the
health system....

The measures are divided into the following ten topical areas:
* Access to Care
* Cost and Affordability
* Coverage
* Health Information Technology
* Innovation
* Population Health
* Prevention
* Quality
* Vulnerable Populations
* Workforce
...
With this web tool you can:
* Quickly view data on a given topic from multiple sources
* Compare national metrics with the same metrics measured at the
regional and state level
* See time trends for up to 10 years
* Compare data across variables such as income, race, age, and
insurance coverage type
* View data in both graphical and table format
* Explore the data, create custom visualizations, and export to
other media
Measures

Measures that are included the Health System Measurement Project are
updated annually or as new data becomes available. Look for recent
and upcoming data updates on the home page.

Where possible, measures were selected to align with existing HHS
strategic planning and performance measurement efforts including the
<http://www.hhs.gov/secretary/about/priorities.html>Department's
Strategic Plan, the
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/mgmt-gpra/index-gpra>Government
Performance and Results Act,
<http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/default.aspx>Healthy People 2020
and the
<http://www.healthcare.gov/prevention/nphpphc/strategy/>National
Strategies for Quality and
<http://www.healthcare.gov/news/factsheets/2012/04/national-quality-strategy04302012a.html>Prevention.

About the Data Sources

The Health System Measurement Project builds primarily on data
collected from existing HHS and other Federal surveys. Data have been
provided by the following agencies:
* <http://www.ahrq.gov/>Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
* <http://www.cdc.gov/>Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
* <http://www.cms.gov/>Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS)
* <http://www.fda.gov/>Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
* <http://www.hrsa.gov/index.html>Health Resources & Services
Administration (HRSA)
* <http://aspe.hhs.gov/_/index.cfm>Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE)
*
<http://healthit.hhs.gov/portal/server.pt/community/healthit_hhs_gov__onc/1200>Office
of the National Coordinator (ONC)
* <http://www.samhsa.gov/>Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration (SAMHSA)
https://healthmeasures.aspe.hhs.gov/about