Hospitals in Washington State have the opportunity to earn a one percent incentive payment under the Medicaid Quality Incentive program. The MQI program is a partnership between the Health Care Authority (HCA) and Washington State Hospital Association (WSHA).
The Medicaid Quality Incentive was established in 2010 through WA legislation to support the Hospital Safety Net Assessment. All Prospective Payment System (PPS) hospitals in WA state may earn up to a 1% increase in inpatient Medicaid payments if they meet specific quality and financial reporting requirements. Participation in the program is over a 6-month period starting from July through December. MQI incentive payments are funded by quarterly assessments paid to the state by hospitals and federal matching funds.
These are program requirements to earn the incentive.
- Timely reporting of financial data
- Submission of quality measures as defined in the MQI Guidelines
- DOH and WSHA provide financial and quality performance to the HCA. The HCA makes the final determination of who receives the payment.
- 2023-2025 MQI Program Key Dates
Step 1: Check Your Eligibility
- Not all hospitals in WA are eligible to earn a financial incentive. Critical access hospitals (CAH) may report quality measures, but they are not eligible to receive a financial incentive through the MQI program because they do not participate in the Safety Net Assessment program.
- Not all measures are relevant to all hospitals. Select a grid below, find your hospital and review which MQI measures are eligible towards your incentive.
- Eligibility grid
- Critical Assess Hospitals (CAHs) do not participate in the Safety Net Assessment and therefore are not eligible for the financial incentive. CAH Hospitals that meet the criteria for the incentive will be recognized through the CAH Achievement of Quality Excellence. Contact Megan Herman (MeganH@wsha.org) for any questions.
Step 2: Review the Measures
The Hospital Comment Period conducted from April 9 – April 30th is an exciting opportunity for WSHA hospital members to engage on proposed measures before they are finalized by HCA.
To begin the review of the proposed measures and provide written feedback on measure/s, you can access the MQI Hospital Focus Group Survey
For 2024 Draft MQI measures list please reference the link below.
Review the specifications for each measure that your hospitals is eligible to report on.
For 2023 MQI measures list please reference the link below.
Review the specifications for each measure that your hospitals is eligible to report on.
Step 3: Enter Data & Monitor Progress
The MQI 2023 data collection period is from July 1st through December 31st. See reporting details in the measure specifications (Step 2). The final reporting deadline is 30 days after the close of the performance period or by January 31, 2024.
*WSHA encourages hospitals to submit data early for an opportunity to be pre-reviewed by Safety & Quality staff. Data cannot be corrected after Jan 31st, 2024.
- Quality Benchmarking System (QBS) This is a secure data entry system developed for WSHA where hospitals can directly enter data, upload files and documents to fulfill most MQI measure requirements. You must be provided access to QBS to submit data and upload supporting documentation for your hospital.
- Data Analytics Service Hub (DASH) This is a secure data visualization platform developed by WSHA to display hospital progress towards meeting MQI performance measures. You must be provided access to DASH to view your hospital MQI Report Card.
- Request access to DASH
- Final determination of your hospitals performance and incentive achievement is made by the Health Care Authority and notification will be made directly to your leadership.
- Request access to DASH
MQI Webinars
The WSHA Safety & Quality team supports all MQI focus areas with tools, resources, webinars and coaching. Keep an eye out for upcoming events and review the links below to recordings/registration by measure topic.
- Topics (specific to the measure) I Webinar recordings /webinar slides I Date I Link
- MQI Kick-off I Recording I Slides I June 8, 2023
- MQI Measure Training I Recording I Slides I June 13, 2023
- MQI Measure Training I Recording I Passcode: R8^^T&v8 I Slides I July 11, 2023
- WSHA Analytics Office Hour I Recording I September 12, 2023
- Safe Deliveries Roadmap (SDR) Care and Stabilization of the Birthing Person in
Opiate Withdrawal I Recording I September 14, 2023 - WSHA Analytics Office Hour I Recording I October 17, 2023
- Health Disparities Action Planning Workshop – I Recording I Slides I November 8, 2023
For hospitals just getting started, check out this guide: Using Data to Reduce Disparities and Improve Quality - WSHA Analytics Office Hour I Recording I November 14, 2023
- WSHA Analytics Office Hour I Recording I December 12, 2023
- WSHA Analytics Office Hour I Recording I January 9, 2024
- WSHA Analytics Office Hour I Recording I February 13, 2024
- WSHA Analytics Office Hour I Recording I March 12, 2024
- WSHA Analytics Office Hour – REGISTER HERE
