title: Pediatric oral health performance measurement: current capabilities and future directions.
abstract: This paper offers an overview of performance measurement in health care, provides a synopsis of the findings and recommendations of an Oral Health Expert Panel organized by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) under contract with the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), and discusses challenges and possible future directions for pediatric oral health care performance measures development. Existing performance measures for pediatric oral health care are extremely limited; however, several new measures have been proposed and are in various stages of development and testing. Measures capable of being implemented in the short-term focus on access and use of services, rely on administrative data sources, and represent refinements and enhancements of current measures. Measures proposed for future implementation focus more on the effectiveness of care, consumer assessments of care and plan performance, and the value of services provided to enrolled children. Recommendations are targeted toward high-risk children who, for the most part, are covered by public programs (e.g., Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program). Nevertheless, the entire set of recommended measures is considered to be relevant to all pediatric populations and applicable to all forms of dental care coverage, including state-administered programs and commercial third party arrangements.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Dentistry, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington 06030-1610, USA. crall@nso.uchc.edu
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Crall
authors.forename: C I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Szlyk
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Schneider
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019140:Dental Care for Children / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000517:prevention & control; D003733:Dental Caries Susceptibility; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D005544:Forecasting; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007347:Insurance, Dental; D007348:Insurance, Health; D007349:Insurance, Health, Reimbursement; D008484:Medicaid; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010895:Pit and Fissure Sealants / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011313:Preventive Dentistry; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D010895:Pit and Fissure Sealants