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Payers and Purchasers

The QualityTools™ Payers and Purchasers page, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, offers resources to help health plans, administrators, and employer groups. The tools you will find here include guidelines, measures, benchmarking and comparative data, information on patient safety, and other tools to help inform payment and purchasing decisions and improve the quality of care that is delivered to patients.

Click on any of the questions below to find the tools that best fit your needs.

Where can I find clinical recommendations or processes for improving health care quality to establish provider incentives? These tools consist of benchmarks, guidelines, and measures that can be used to identify variances in practice patterns and reward providers achieving high quality care.


Where can I find information on patient safety practices and identify opportunities for quality improvement? These tools provide information on medical errors and related patient safety issues and present ways to reduce and/or prevent errors from occurring.


Where can I obtain benchmarking and comparative data for making payment and purchasing decisions? These tools present national and state-specific health care cost, utilization, outcomes, and other performance data that can be used to establish financial incentives and identify areas for quality improvement.


Where can I find information on quality improvement initiatives or strategies? These tools present information on health care quality improvement programs, goals, or initiatives that can be used to inform health care decisions.


Where can I find information on specific diseases/conditions to improve quality of care? These tools present treatment recommendations for specific diseases and/or conditions.


Where can I find prevention and wellness information to improve quality of care? These tools present treatment recommendations on prevention and wellness.


If you’re unsure of what types of tools you need, show all tools developed for payers and purchasers.