Quality measures are standards for measuring the performance of health care providers to care for patients and populations. PQA develops and stewards measures focused on medication use.
There are 42 PQA measures, which are described in the PQA Measures Overview, and they fall into one of three categories:
- Performance Measures,
- Monitoring Measures, or
- Quality Improvement Indicators.
Only PQA performance measures can be used in accountability programs and only for the intended level of attribution. For example, a measure developed and tested for health plan performance measurement should not be used for pharmacy performance measurement.
PQA monitoring measures, such as Medication Therapy Problem Resolution, are intended to promote standardized documentation and reporting, while quality improvement indicators do not require standardized reporting and may only be used for self-assessment purposes.
Most PQA measures are for evaluating health plan performance. PQA also has a set of pharmacy measures for evaluating pharmacy performance and quality improvement.
Additionally, PQA measures are grouped into four domains:
- Adherence,
- Appropriate Medication Use,
- Medication Safety, and
- Medication Management Services.
Most PQA adherence measures use the proportion of days covered method although some measures, such as Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C: Completion of Therapy and Persistence to Basal Insulin, use different methods. The PQA measures evaluating appropriate use of medications focus on diabetes, anticoagulation and migraine treatment.
Medication safety is addressed through several measures focused on antipsychotic use in persons with dementia, polypharmacy in older adults, and opioid prescribing and monitoring. All current PQA quality improvement indicators focus on medication therapy management services. Specialty Pharmacy Turnaround Time [Pharmacy] is the newest measure in the medication management services domain.
See our PQA Measures Overview document for a quick summary of our measures, and you can dive deeper with our webpage of PQA Measure Descriptions and FAQs. Here is a list of all 42 measures currently stewarded by PQA:
- Adherence to Direct-Acting Oral Anticoagulants (PDC-DOAC)
- Adherence to Long-Acting Inhaled Bronchodilator Agents in COPD (PDC-COPD)
- Adherence to Non-infused Biologic Medications Used to Treat Rheumatoid Arthritis (PDC-RA)
- Adherence to Non-infused Disease Modifying Agents Used to Treat Multiple Sclerosis (PDC-MS)
- Annual Monitoring for Persons on Long-Term Opioid Therapy (AMO) (NQF #3451)
- Antipsychotic Use in Persons with Dementia (APD)
- Antipsychotic Use in Persons with Dementia: MDS (APD-MDS)
- Completion Rate for Comprehensive Medication Review (CMR)
- Concurrent Use of Opioids and Benzodiazepines (COB) (NQF #3389)
- Initial Opioid Prescribing at High Dosage (IOP-HD)
- Initial Opioid Prescribing for Long Duration (IOP-LD) (NQF #3558)
- Initial Opioid Prescribing for Long-Acting or Extended-Release Opioids (IOP-LA)
- International Normalized Ratio Monitoring for Individuals on Warfarin (INR) (NQF #0555)
- Medication Synchronization: Completeness [QII]
- Medication Synchronization: Continuation: 2 Rates [QII]
- Medication Synchronization: Patient Contact Rate [QII]
- Medication Synchronization: Program Acceptance and Initial Synchronization [QII]
- Medication Therapy Problem Resolution (MTPR) (monitoring measure)
- Migraine Preventive Therapy (MPT)
- Persistence to Basal Insulin (PST-INS)
- Polypharmacy: Use of Multiple Anticholinergic Medications in Older Adults (POLY-ACH)
- Polypharmacy: Use of Multiple CNS-Active Medications in Older Adults (POLY-CNS)
- Primary Medication Nonadherence [Pharmacy] (PMN-PH)
- Proportion of Days Covered Composite [Pharmacy] (PDC-CMP-PH)
- Proportion of Days Covered: Antiretroviral Medications (PDC-ARV)
- Proportion of Days Covered: Antiretroviral Medications [Pharmacy] (PDC-ARV-PH)
- Proportion of Days Covered: Beta-Blockers (PDC-BB)
- Proportion of Days Covered: Calcium Channel Blockers (PDC-CCB)
- Proportion of Days Covered: Diabetes All Class (PDC-DR) (NQF #0541)
- Proportion of Days Covered: Renin Angiotensin System Antagonists (PDC-RASA) (NQF #0541)
- Proportion of Days Covered: Renin Angiotensin System Antagonists [Pharmacy] (PDC-RASA-PH)
- Proportion of Days Covered: Statins (PDC-STA) (NQF #0541)
- Proportion of Days Covered: Statins [Pharmacy] (PDC-STA-PH)
- Provision of Medication Therapy Management Services Post Hospital Discharge [QII]
- Readmission of Patients Provided Medication Therapy Management Services Post Hospital Discharge [QII]
- Specialty Pharmacy Turnaround Time [Pharmacy] (SP-TAT-PH)
- Statin Use in Persons with Diabetes (SUPD)
- Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C: Completion of Therapy (HCV)
- Use of Medications to Prevent Major Cardiovascular Events in Persons with Diabetes (CVDM)
- Use of Opioids at High Dosage and from Multiple Providers in Persons Without Cancer (OHDMP) (NQF #2951)
- Use of Opioids at High Dosage in Persons Without Cancer (OHD) (NQF #2940)
- Use of Opioids from Multiple Providers in Persons Without Cancer (OMP) (NQF #2950)
Interested in learning how PQA develops, maintains and retires measures? See our webpage on Developing Measures That Matter.