Optimal Health for All Within Nation’s Health and Long-Term Care Systems: CCSQ FY2025–2028 Strategic Roadmap

The Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is committed to improving health care and outcomes, and strengthening accountability, across the nation's health- and long-term care systems.

Over the next several years, CCSQ will focus on five strategic goals-Prevention, Quality and Safety, Coverage Innovation, Data and Technology, and Burden Reduction. These priorities build on CCSQ's core mission to establish national health and safety standards; implement quality measurement, reporting and improvement; and support Medicare's coverage determinations. Together, they represent a roadmap for health- and long-term care systems that are safer, stronger, and more transparent.

Leading with Prevention

CCSQ's roadmap starts with a simple idea: healthcare begins with prevention. When people have early access to the right services -a screening, wellness visit, or conversation with their doctor- their health outcomes meaningfully improve.

CCSQ is also advancing prevention through improved access to nutrition and lifestyle supports. This includes expanding access to nutrition counseling and incorporating evidence-based nutrition standards into hospital and long-term care facility guidance, aligned with the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, helping support disease prevention, improve patient outcomes, and promote healthier food environments across care settings.

By strengthening the nation's preventive care foundation, CCSQ is focusing on initiatives to help people live longer, healthier lives.

Improving Quality and Protecting Safety

Everyone deserves care that is safe, reliable, and high quality for themselves and their loved ones. CCSQ's second strategic goal, "Improve Quality and Protect Safety," focuses on making high-quality, safe care a reality across all care settings.

Achieving this goal starts with accountability. On World Safety Day (September 17, 2025), CMS publicly committed to raising the bar with bold new initiatives to advance patient safety and hold healthcare facilities responsible for causing harm. CCSQ plays a central role in this effort by giving patients the information and tools they need to make informed decisions about their care and safety. For example, people should be able to understand a hospital or nursing home's safety track record before choosing where to receive care.

CCSQ is also expanding the use of automated, AI-supported digital quality measures to identify common preventable harms - such as infections, medication errors, maternal deaths, and diagnostic mistakes - earlier and more consistently, without adding extra paperwork for providers.

One of these efforts includes the Patient Safety Structural Measure, recently incorporated into hospital metrics. This measure evaluates whether hospitals have strong leadership, reliable safety systems, and processes that actively involve patients and respond transparently when harm occurs.

In the transplant system, CCSQ is leading a national effort to ensure Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) and transplant centers meet higher standards for performance and transparency. By publishing clear performance metrics and modernizing data systems, CMS and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) are increasing accountability for safe organ transplantation. In September 2025, CMS announced the decertification of an OPO after an investigation uncovered unsafe practices, poor training, chronic underperformance, understaffing, and documentation failures. This unprecedented action underscores CMS' commitment to improving the transplant system and holding poor performers accountable.

The same commitment to safety extends to nursing home accountability. The CCSQ Strategic Roadmap prioritizes stronger oversight, risk-based surveys, and clearer public reporting through the Five-Star Quality Rating System. In recent years, CMS has taken thousands of enforcement actions when nursing home residents were put at risk or harmed.

This goal emphasizes ensuring facilities receive the support they need to improve-from modernizing Conditions of Participation (CoPs) to reflect current standards, to providing technical assistance through the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program. Recently, CMS launched the QIO 13th Scope of Workto support healthcare quality improvement and the Secretary's Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative.

Accelerating Coverage

Innovation is only meaningful when patients can access it. That's why CCSQ's "Accelerate Coverage" goal focuses on streamlining the path between discovery and delivery.

Through modernization of the National Coverage Determination (NCD) and Local Coverage Determination (LCD) processes, CMS is striving to make faster coverage decisions that are clearer and more transparent. These improvements will streamline the pathway from innovation to patient access, while giving clinicians greater clarity on coverage policies.

These efforts will help bring life-saving diagnostics and advanced therapies to Medicare beneficiaries sooner. CCSQ will continue to modernize public reporting tools, including the NCD Dashboard, and educational materials so stakeholders can track progress, anticipate updates, and better understand how decisions are made.

The result will be a system that keeps pace with innovation, while maintaining rigorous standards of safety and evidence that defines CMS' mission.

Leveraging Data & Technology

No transformation in healthcare is possible without the right data or the right tools to use it effectively. The "Leverage Data and Technology" goal focuses on building modern digital tools that make healthcare improvement faster and more effective.

CCSQ is implementing Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards to connect data systems and enable real-time information exchange among providers, payers, and patients and expanding the use of digital quality measures across CMS Quality Reporting and Value-Based Purchasing programs. These measures draw directly from electronic health records and other sources, enabling automated reporting and reducing manual data submission for providers.

A new Advancing Healthcare Quality Through Technology initiative, a pilot implemented through the QIO Program, supports this transformation by helping providers optimize their EHR capabilities and use data to identify opportunities for better outcomes.

Technology is also improving oversight. CCSQ continues to explore the use of advanced analytics and emerging technologies to support risk-based oversight and improve consistency in survey and certification activities.

When data moves faster, quality improvement can move with it, reducing administrative complexity and enabling providers to focus more of their time on patient care.

Reducing Burden

The fifth goal, "Reduce Burden," focuses on simplifying the system so providers can spend more time with patients and less time on paperwork. CMS is identifying outdated requirements, streamlining oversight, and using automation to reduce unnecessary administrative work. Where possible, reporting systems are being aligned to cut down on redundant data submissions and make compliance more efficient.

Why This Roadmap Matters

The FY2025-2028 Strategic Roadmap comes at a time of transformation in healthcare. The lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic, advances in technology, and growing expectations for transparency have all underscored the need for a system that is accountable, adaptive, and focused on outcomes.

By leading with prevention, improving quality and protecting safety, accelerating coverage, leveraging data & technology, and reducing burden, CCSQ is building a stronger foundation for the future of care.

Every strategic goal supports CCSQ's vision for optimal health for all within our Nation's health and long-term care systems.

A Vision for the Future

This roadmap brings focus, discipline, and clarity to CCSQ's work to improve future of health- and long-term care. It clarifies how CCSQ will deliver on its mission to Make America Healthy Again by promoting prevention, advancing quality and safety, and ensuring access to care.

Resources

###

Get CMS news at cms.gov/newsroom , sign up for CMS news via email and follow CMS on X @CMSgov