National Contraceptive Quality Measures (NCQM) Workgroup

Learn more about how to promote patient-centered, equity-focused contraceptive measures!

This report helps clarify the value of measures within SRH and highlight the contributions and potential of contraceptive performance measures as well as their relevance to equity, justice, patient-centeredness, and other quality measures.

Background

Prior to 2016, there were no validated quality measures for contraception. To address this gap, federal and other stakeholders developed measures to assess the provision of contraception to all people in need of contraceptive services and client experience with contraceptive services. Between 2013-2019, the National Contraceptive Quality Measures (NCQM) Workgroup brought together experts from the reproductive and sexual health field to help develop and disseminate nationally recognized quality measures related to contraceptive services. Re-imagined in 2022, the NCQM Workgroup now focuses on sharing information and lessons learned from the multitude of past and current activities, with an explicit focus on implementation and policy.

Vision

The NCQM Workgroup envisions a future state where:

  • All people have control over and the ability to act or not act on their contraceptive decisions, goals, and desires.

  • All people who want contraception can access the contraception of their preference – when, how, and where they want it, free of barriers and bias.

  • All sexual and reproductive health-related policy, programs, practice, care delivery, and research are person-centered, with a range of meaningful, values-aligned contraceptive measures at their core to holistically assess and ensure equitable access and quality.

  • Patient-centered contraceptive care is embedded and valued at all levels of the U.S. health care system and contraceptive services and supplies are adequately reimbursed.

  • Provider practices reflect evidence-based guidelines and best practices that uphold patient preferences and autonomy.

  • Contraceptive care and the range of contraceptive measures avoid creating harms by centering people’s experiences and preferences and uplifting reproductive justice, autonomy, and equity.

Goal and Objectives

The goal of the NCQM Workgroup is to ensure that meaningful, patient-centered quality measures and sexual and reproductive health performance measures are endorsed, maintained, disseminated, and implemented appropriately. The Workgroup’s objectives are to:

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    Foster Culture Shift and Alignment

    Support consensus building and goal alignment across different audiences to implement and improve the SRH measurement ecosystem

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    Support Measure Use and Interpretation

    Expand the use of existing contraceptive measures and support the field to understand and interpret the data and goals for contraceptive measures

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    Enhance National Tracking and Reporting

    Advocate for and collaborate with entities as they integrate measures into national systems, promote and incentivize, and monitor and evaluate the update and impact

Member Organizations

More than 30 organizations and individual researchers and subject matter experts have participated in the Workgroup:

  • American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)

  • Bold Futures

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

  • Coalition to Expand Contraceptive Access (CECA)

  • Columbia University

  • Dartmouth College

  • Envision Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH)

  • Essential Access Health

  • Family Planning, Access, Care, and Treatment (Family PACT)

  • Far Harbor

  • Guttmacher Institute

  • Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)

  • Illinois Contraceptive Access Now (ICAN!)

  • Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF)

  • Manatt

  • Mathematica

  • National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC)

  • National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)

  • National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA)

  • National Partnership for Women and Families

  • National Quality Forum (NQF)

  • Office of Population Affairs (OPA)

  • Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA)

  • Power to Decide

  • Research Triangle Institute (RTI)

  • Tara Health Foundation

  • Unity Health Care

  • University of California

  • University of Chicago

  • University of Michigan

  • University of Pittsburgh

  • Upstream

  • Individual researchers and subject matter experts

Resources

Promoting Patient-Centered, Equity-Focused Contraceptive Measures

This document is intended to help clarify the value of measures within SRH and highlight the contributions and potential of contraceptive performance measures as well as their relevance to equity, justice, patient-centeredness, and other quality measures.

Contraceptive Care Performance Measures: Guidance for Health Care Providers

This document is intended to provide guidance to health care providers and teams on how to use the contraceptive care provision measures with the person-centered contraceptive counseling (PCCC) measure.

Contraceptive Quality Measures Implementation Environmental Scan Report

In support of the NCQM Workgroup, CECA performed an environmental scan in 2022 and facilitated Workgroup discussions to identify and summarize existing available evidence related to where and how contraceptive performance measures are being used.

Future “Suite” of SRH Measures

This document highlights some new measures in develop that can help expand the existing “suite” of measures to better reflect the broad experiences, desires, and needs of diverse people.