Rural healthcare providers and advocates know that rural health is not ‘a smaller version’ of urban healthcare systems and that current national measurement and benchmarking systems may not accurately capture and reflect the quality work of rural health providers. The Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project (MBQIP) is a three-year, voluntary initiative for Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) intended to create a national database of rural appropriate and relevant quality data to demonstrate to policymakers the work CAHs are doing. CAHs that participate in MBQIP will be able to share best practices among one another and be benchmarked against other CAHs across the nation. As Medicare moves toward payment tied to quality and public reporting, MBQIP provides an opportunity for CAHs to prepare for future changes. 

MBQIP’s first of three phases begins in September 2011. To learn more, watch the short MBQIP video on YouTube and contact Jen Dunn or Michelle Mills for additional information.