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Medicare News
Results Published on Efforts to Reduce Drug Errors
Among Medicare Patients
State-by-state report on QIOs published in Managed
Care
Sept. 7, 2007 – Reducing the number of deaths among
Medicare patients from adverse drug events is a goal of the Quality
Improvement Organizations and a report on their progress has just been
published. The state by state details of how America’s QIOs are working
in partnership with Medicare Part D prescription drug plans (PDPs) and
Medicare Advantage plans (MA-PDs) to improve the quality of prescription
drug therapy for Medicare beneficiaries are reported in a supplement to
the July/August Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy.
The new QIO assignment was started in August 2006
under a congressional requirement in the Medicare Modernization Act of
2003.
The supplement, “Medicare Quality Improvement
Organizations’ Ambulatory Drug Therapy Improvement Activities and
Partnerships with Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans and Medicare
Advantage Plans,” describes the national effort and showcases state by
state projects conducted by QIOs in conjunction with PDPs and MA-PDs to
improve the use and delivery of prescription drugs. It is available at:
http://amcp.org/data/jmcp/July%20B%20Supplement.pdf.
“According to the IOM, every year a half million
adverse drug events occur among ambulatory Medicare enrollees, including
180,000 life-threatening or fatal events. This supplement describes how
QIOs and Medicare drug plans are working together to reduce the risk of
unintended harm,” said David Schulke, Executive Vice President of the
American Health Quality Association (AHQA) AHQA represents the national
network of QIOs.
“As this supplement shows, drug benefit plans and
QIOs are cooperating in very innovative projects to improve the quality
of care for Medicare beneficiaries,” said Judy Cahill, Executive
Director of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, publisher of the
journal. “Both managed care pharmacy and beneficiaries are benefiting
from this kind of assistance to improve the therapeutic and financial
value of the drug benefit.”
QIOs were allowed great latitude by the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services to develop the initial projects, resulting
in a wide array of inventive community-based efforts involving MA-PDs
and PDPs. Partners recruited to work on these projects include managed
care, hospital, and community pharmacists; pharmacy associations;
medical societies; colleges of pharmacy; and long term care facilities.
Project examples include:
**QIOs in eleven states are working to promote
safer alternatives to use of drugs known to be more likely to produce
adverse effects in the elderly population.
**QIOs in eight states are focusing on improving
medication use by people with diabetes, a major source of death and
chronic illness in the Medicare population.
**QIOs in seven upper Midwestern states are pooling
resources and leveraging existing partnerships through a multi-state
collaborative to educate both providers and beneficiaries with high
medication use about drug plan Medication Therapy Management (MTM)
programs.
**Several QIOs are receiving medical and pharmacy
data directly from health plans to report quality performance and spur
competition over quality performance.
**One QIO is linking professionals in different
care settings to improve medication reconciliation at hospital admission
with pharmacist follow up of hospital discharge orders.
To locate the QIO in each state, visit:
http://www.ahqa.org/pub/connections/162_694_2450.cfm
About AHQA: AHQA is dedicated to improving the
safety and effectiveness of health care. AHQA represents the national
network of QIOs that work with hospitals, medical practices, long-term
care facilities, home health agencies, health plans, pharmacists, and
employers to encourage the spread of best clinical practices and improve
systems of care delivery. Find your local QIO at:
http://www.ahqa.org
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