The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has released its annual state-by-state quality data online, which now includes new data on health insurance, such as health care quality categorized by payment source--private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid and persons without insurance.

The 2009 State Snapshots report offers health care quality information for each state. The user can choose a state and find comparison data. The information covers types of care (preventive, acute and chronic care); settings of care (hospitals, ambulatory settings, nursing homes and home health care); and clinical conditions (cancer, diabetes, heart disease, maternal and child health and respiratory disease). Special focus areas include diabetes, asthma, Healthy People 2010 objectives, clinical preventive services, and disparities.

The Snapshots insurance data include a state-to-U.S. comparison by payer; state-to-U.S. disparities among Medicare, Medicaid, and the uninsured and privately insured. The data also have a new feature of data variation across states and over time in potentially avoidable adult and pediatric hospital admissions.

Revised features include select hospital care measures for inpatient mortality, patient safety, and birth and obstetric care; a summary of the state-specific comparisons by demographics on quality of care measures; and state-to-state comparisons for each summary measure on care quality that have been expanded to include tables with the best performing states and showing all states alphabetically.

The AHRQ says that Maine, Maryland, Wyoming, South Carolina and the District of Columbia have shown the greatest improvement. The smallest improvement was in North Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, Nebraska and Washington State.

Adapted in part from an AHRQ press release, available here.

The 2009 State Snapshots released are available here.

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