Community Health Quality Recognition (CHQR) badges recognize Health Center Program awardees and look-alikes (LALs) that have made quality improvement achievements in:
- Access
- Quality
- Equity
- Health IT
CHQR badges are awarded yearly based on the latest Uniform Data System (UDS) reporting period.
Jump to:
- CHQR badge criteria
- National Quality Leader badges
- Health Center Quality Leader badges
- Other CHQR badges
- View badge awards
- Request high-quality images of the badges
CHQR badge criteria
To be eligible for CHQR badges, health centers must:
- Be an active Health Center Program awardee or look-alike.
- Submit complete UDS data on time.
- Report on clinical quality measures (CQMs) and patient populations. Use an electronic health record (EHR) to do this.
- Resolve any progressive action conditions by June of the year we release the CHQR badges.
National Quality Leader (NQL) badges
To earn NQL badges, health centers and LALs must:
- Meet or exceed national benchmarks for one or more of the clinical quality measures (CQM) groups that promote:
- Behavioral health
- Cancer screening
- Diabetes health
- Heart health
- HIV prevention and care
- Maternal and child health
- Report a minimum number of 70 patients in a CQM denominator for all NQL badges except:
- HIV Prevention and Care badge: report at least 30 patients for the HIV linkage to care CQM
- Maternal and Child Health badge: report at least 30 patients for the low birthweight CQM
2024 NQL - Behavioral Health badge
Must meet or exceed all targets.
| Measure | Must meet |
|---|---|
| Depression remission at 12 months | 18.2% (Top quintile of 2023 UDS Data) |
| Depression screening and follow-up plan | 80.5% (Top quartile of 2023 UDS Data) |
| Proportion of all patients receiving Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) | At least 5% |
| Relative percent increase in patients receiving medication-assisted treatment (MAT) between consecutive UDS reporting years | At least 10% |
2024 NQL – Cancer Screening badge
Must meet at least two of the three cancer screening targets
| Measure | Must meet |
|---|---|
| Breast Cancer Screening | 80.3% (Healthy People 2030 Target) |
| Cervical Cancer Screening | 79.2% (Healthy People 2030 Target) |
| Colorectal Cancer Screening | 68.3% (Healthy People 2030 Target) |
2024 NQL – Diabetes Health badge
Must meet or exceed all targets.
| Measure | Must meet |
|---|---|
| Adult BMI screening and follow-up plan | 83.1% (Top quartile of 2023 UDS Data) |
| Weight assessment and counseling for nutrition and physical activity for children and adolescents | 77.4% (Top quartile of 2023 UDS Data) |
| Uncontrolled diabetes – Inverse Measure | 11.6% (Healthy People 2030 Target) |
2024 NQL - Heart Health badge
Must meet the Million Heart Goals (PDF - 976 KB)
| Measure | Must meet |
|---|---|
| Tobacco use screening and cessation intervention | 80% |
| Use of aspirin or antiplatelet for ischemic vascular disease | 80% |
| Statin therapy | 80% |
| Hypertension control | 80% |
2024 NQL - HIV Prevention and Care badge
Must meet or exceed all targets.
| Measure | Must meet |
|---|---|
| HIV linkage to care within 30 days of diagnosis | 95% (Healthy People 2030 Target) |
| Patients on PrEP: Any absolute increase in the number of patients receiving PrEP in back-to-back UDS reporting years | Any increase greater than 0 |
| HIV testing: At least a 10% relative increase in the number of HIV diagnostic tests performed in back-to-back reporting years (UDS Table 6A (PDF - 265 KB)) | At least 10% |
2024 NQL - Maternal and Child Health badge
Must meet or exceed all targets.
| Measure | Must meet |
|---|---|
| Low birth weight – Inverse Measure | 7.7% (National Vital Statistics System--Adjusted Average) |
| Early entry into prenatal care | 80.5% (Healthy People 2030 Target) |
| Weight assessment and counseling for nutrition and physical activity for children and adolescents | 77.4% (Top quartile of 2023 H80 UDS) |
| Full childhood immunization by age two | 38.9% (National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS)) |
| Well-child visits: An absolute increase in the number of well-child (“health supervision”) visits in back-to-back reporting years | Any increase greater than 0 |
2024 Health Center Quality Leader (HCQL) badge
To earn HCQL badges, health centers must have the best overall CQM performance based on average 2023 Adjusted Quartile Rankings (AQR). We award HCQL badges to health centers with AQR averages in the top three tiers (top 30%).
| Measure | Must meet |
|---|---|
| 1st tier (top 10%) | Gold |
| 2nd tier (top 11-20%) | Silver |
| 3rd tier (top 21-30%) | Bronze |
Note: We use the latest UDS data to calculate AQRs each year. Tier cutoffs may change every year, and adjusted quartiles may not be consistent from year to year.
Other CHQR badges
2024 Access Enhancer badge
Who can earn this badge?
Health centers must
- Achieve at least one of these:
- Earn at least one HCQL or NQL badge.
- Improve by at least 15% in one or more CQMs in back-to-back reporting years.
- Increase by at least 5% in back-to-back reporting years.
- Total patients.
- Patients receiving mental health, substance use disorder, vision, dental, or enabling services.
How did health centers qualify?
We used data from the last two UDS reporting periods (Table 5: Staffing and Utilization (PDF - 271 KB)).
2024 Health Disparities Reducer badge
Who can earn this badge?
Health centers must
- Qualify for the Access Enhancer badge.
- Meet at least one of these:
- Improve by at least 10% in low birth weight, hypertension control, or uncontrolled diabetes CQMs and must:
- Improve during the two most recent back-to-back reporting years for at least one racial or ethnic group.
- Perform well or better than the previous year for the CQM at the health center level.
- Meet the following targets for all racial or ethnic groups they served within the latest reporting year.
| Clinical Quality Measure | Must meet |
|---|---|
| Low birth weight – Inverse Measure | 7.7% (Adjusted National Vital Statistics System Average) |
| Hypertension control | 60.8% (Former Healthy People 2030 Target*) |
| Uncontrolled diabetes – Inverse Measure | 11.6% (Healthy People 2030 Target) |
*HHS updated the Hypertension Control Healthy People 2030 Objective in 2022. The new objective has a different hypertension control threshold (<130/80 mmHg) than the UDS eCQM (<140/90 mmHg). We kept the earlier target (60.8%) to be consistent.
How did health centers qualify?
We used data from the two latest reporting years (UDS Table 7: Health Outcomes and Disparities (PDF - 292 KB)).
2024 Advancing Health Information Technology (HIT) for Quality badge
Who can earn this badge?
Health centers that meet all the following criteria:
- Adopted an electronic health record (EHR) system.
- Offered telehealth services.
- Exchanged clinical information online with key providers' health care settings.
- Engaged patients through health IT.
- Collected data on patient social risk factors.
How did health centers qualify?
We used UDS data from the latest reporting year (Appendix D: Health Center Information Technology Capabilities and Appendix E: Other Data Elements (PDF - 171 KB).)
2024 Addressing Social Risk Factors badge
Who can earn this badge?
Health centers that:
- Collect data on patient social risk factors.
- Increase the percentage of patients who received enabling services between the last two UDS reporting years.
How did health centers qualify? We used data from the two latest UDS reporting periods.
- Table 5: Staffing and Utilization (PDF - 271 KB)
- Appendix D: Health Center Information Technology Capabilities (PDF - 171 KB)
How do we view badge awards?
- CHQR Dashboard
- View badges we award to each health center.
- Compare how your health center performed with others.
- Create a list of health centers by badge type.
- View state- and national-level summaries.
- Health Center Program UDS Data – View all CHQR badges we award to each health center. (We base this on the latest UDS reporting year.)
How do we request a high-quality image of our badge?
Fill out the BPHC Contact Form. Select:
- Uniform Data Systems (UDS)
- Community Health Quality Recognition Badges (CHQR) Badges
- Requesting a badge image or certificate
What if we have a question?
Fill out the BPHC Contact Form. Select:
- Uniform Data System (UDS)
- Community Health Quality Recognition (CHQR) Badges
- Verifying CHQR badge eligibility or criteria
Review the Community Health Quality Recognition Frequently Asked Questions.