Equity in Quality of Care and Patient Experiences

Overview

To monitor the impact of health system processes and policies on patient outcomes, CHIA examines clinical quality and patient experience measures across several care domains in primary care settings. In previous reports, CHIA presented statewide results for the performance of Massachusetts primary care providers and acute care hospitals on select metrics related to quality and safety.

For the first time, CHIA is reporting on these measures through a health equity lens to identify disparities and areas for improvement in an effort to advance a more equitable health care system in Massachusetts. Equity in Quality of Care: Select Clinical Quality and Patient Experience Measures in Massachusetts Stratified by Race and Ethnicity, 2023 includes select measures from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS*)—a widely utilized tool to evaluate clinical quality of care—and the Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP) Patient Experience Survey (PES), both of which relate to the primary care setting. The report also includes hospital performance on the Leapfrog Group’s health equity measure, which evaluates hospitals’ collection and use of patient demographic information to identify disparities and prioritize disparity reduction.

Report Materials (September 2025)

Report Databook Technical Appendix

Black, Asian, and Hispanic patients in Massachusetts have lower preventive screening rates for common conditions, including colorectal cancer and breast cancer, compared with White and non-Hispanic patients.

Preventive medication to control chronic asthma is dispensed to Hispanic patients at lower rates than non-Hispanic patients.

Black and Hispanic children are less likely to have the recommended number of well-child visits in the first 30 months of life less often than White and non-Hispanic children.

Black, Asian, and Hispanic patients report lower levels of trust in their providers than their White and non-Hispanic counterparts.

For detailed information on the data sources, please see the accompanying technical appendix and databook.

* HEDIS® is a registered trademark of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).

Select Clinical Quality and Patient Experience Measures, 2022-2023

As part of CHIA’s ongoing work to monitor health care quality in the Commonwealth, Quality of Care in the Commonwealth: Clinical Quality and Patient Experience Measures examines performance across a subset of measure from the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) and the Patient Experience Survey (PES).

These select measures are a subset of those in the 2023 Aligned Measure Set, a collection of measures endorsed for prioritization and accountability by the EOHHS Quality Measure Alignment Taskforce (“Taskforce”). The Aligned Measure Set includes quality measures for voluntary adoption by private and public payers and providers, specifically for use in global budget-based risk contracts; it aims to reduce administrative burden and focus quality improvement efforts on meaningful and high-priority measures and is updated annually by the Taskforce.

This publication, released in September 2025, includes an analysis of select HEDIS measures for reporting years 2022 and 2023 and PES composites for reporting years 2022-2023 within the commercial market.

In this year’s report, stratified statewide HEDIS and PES results are available for reporting year 2023 to examine disparities in clinical quality measures and patient reported experiences across racial and ethnic groups.

Dataset Technical Appendix

Interactive Dashboard

Quality of Care in the Commonwealth, 2022-2023

(September 2025)

Updated September 11, 2025

Previous Reports

Quality Measure Catalog (QMC) Survey Results

View results from CHIA's quality measure catalog survey, including stakeholder input on priority measures for Massachusetts health care quality reporting.

Statewide Quality Advisory Committee (SQAC)

Learn about the Statewide Quality Advisory Committee, which advises CHIA on health care quality measurement, reporting priorities, and quality improvement.