The National Health Plan Collaborative (NHPC) is a project bringing together 11 major health insurance companies, in partnership with organizations from the public and private sectors, to identify ways to improve the quality of health care for racially and ethnically diverse populations. Together, member health plans reach more than 87-million Americans.

The National Quality Forum (NQF) is a nonprofit membership organization created to develop and implement a national strategy for health care quality measurement and reporting. Established as a public-private partnership, the NQF has broad participation from all parts of the health care system, including national, state, regional and local groups representing consumers, public and private purchasers, employers, health care professionals, provider organizations, health plans, accrediting bodies, labor unions, supporting industries and organizations involved in health care research or quality improvement. Together, the organizational members of the NQF work to promote a common approach to measuring health care quality and fostering system-wide capacity for quality improvement. Quality improvement measures endorsed by the NQF are considered the gold standard.

"Never-Events" are medical mistakes that should never occur under any circumstance.