Contraceptive care services support individuals to achieve their reproductive goals, including delaying or preventing pregnancy and achieving desired birth spacing. Gaps in access to quality contraceptive counseling and to the full range of contraceptive methods persist across health care settings.
Contraceptive performance measures are important tools to evaluate and address these gaps in care. The Person-Centered Reproductive Health Program designed the Contraceptive Use electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) as a set of person-centered metrics of contraceptive use. These measures are focused on patients who indicate their interest in contraceptive services through use of the Self-Identified Need for Contraception (SINC) screening tool and are collectively known as the CU-SINC eCQMs. The eCQMs consists of two measures: the main measure (CU-SINC), which measures use of a most or moderately effective contraceptive method among patients who desire contraception, and a submeasure, called LARC-SINC, which measures provision of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) method within the same population.
The CU-SINC measures, formerly known as “SINC-based eCQMs”, were endorsed for trial use by the National Quality Forum in spring 2022 and were fully endorsed by the Partnership for Quality Measurement in fall 2025 (Postpartum | Non-Postpartum).
Populations measured
The CU-SINC measures are designed for use within two patient populations: one assessing contraceptive use among those receiving peripartum care and one assessing contraceptive for all other women. This division is motivated by the fact that pregnant patients and non-pregnant patients are cared for in distinct care pathways and have distinct contraceptive needs.
Non-Postpartum measure
Primary measure: The percentage of eligible patients who were documented to be using or provided a most or moderately effective contraceptive method, excluding those who indicated they did not want to talk about contraception.
Sub-measure: The percentage of eligible patients who were documented to receive a LARC method, excluding those who indicated they did not want to talk about contraception.
Inclusion criteria: All women 15 – 44 years of age with a visit in a one year period, who said either "yes" to SINC or did not have any documented SINC response.
Postpartum measure
Primary measure: The percentage of eligible postpartum patients who were documented to be using or prrovided a most or moderately effective contraceptive method, excluding those who indicated they did not want to talk about contraception.
Sub-measure: The percentage of eligible postpartum patients who were documented to receive a LARC method, excluding those who indicated they did not want to talk about contraception.
Inclusion criteria: All women 15 – 44 years of age eligible for postpartum contraception during the measurement period, who answered yes to SINC or did not have any documented SINC response. This is defined as those who had a live birth in the 12 months starting 3 months prior to the beginning of the measurement year, to 9 months into the measurement year.