To support continued population health improvement across New Jersey, the Department of Health (DOH) developed and implemented a hospital performance initiative, Quality Improvement Program - New Jersey (QIP-NJ), which officially launched on July 1, 2021, approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. QIP-NJ is envisioned to be a multi-year initiative with participating hospitals improving performance year-over-year until their individual targets align with the statewide goal for each measure. QIP-NJ is administered by DOH in conjunction with the Department of Human Services (DHS) as a Medicaid pay-for-performance initiative and is open to all acute care hospitals in the state.
The focus of the program is to advance statewide quality improvements in maternal health and behavioral health (BH). All acute care hospitals in New Jersey are eligible for QIP-NJ performance payments. Hospitals may earn QIP-NJ incentive payments through the achievement of performance targets on state-selected quality measures that demonstrate:
- Improvements in maternal care processes
- Reductions in maternal morbidity
- Improvements in connections to BH services, and
- Reductions in potentially preventable utilization for the BH population
QIP-NJ further advances and supports statewide quality improvements in maternal health and BH, in alignment with State leadership, i.e., New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy's Nurture NJ Maternal and Infant Health Plan, and the broader goals of the Murphy Administration and its focus on BH. QIP-NJ also provides ample opportunities for technical assistance and robust Learning Collaboratives for hospitals to support one another in achieving QIP-NJ goals. For more information please visit https://qip-nj.nj.gov/.