PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Mar 30, 2009
Quality FIRST (From Incentives, Reporting, Standards, and Technology) Act of 2009 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make performance-based payments each fiscal year to hospitals that provide high quality inpatient hospital services to inpatients entitled to benefits under Medicare part A (Hospital Insurance).
Requires the Secretary to select appropriate evidence-based, statistically valid, and sufficiently field tested quality measures of care furnished by hospitals in inpatient settings for evaluating hospital performance.
Requires a utilization and quality control peer review organization to give priority of quality improvement assistance to low-performing hospitals.
Directs the Secretary to establish a program under which a hospital seeking to improve the quality of inpatient hospital services based on the results of a performance evaluation may apply to the Secretary to receive quality improvement assistance from a private quality organization with expertise in supporting inpatient service quality improvement.
People & committees
Rep. Altmire, Jason [D-PA-4] · D–PA
Legislative record
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Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
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Source last updated: Aug 14, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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