As we near the end of 2024, it’s a great time to reflect on our accomplishments. We are wrapping up year four of Blueprint PQA 2025, PQA’s five-year strategic plan.

Each year brings its share of opportunities and challenges, and I’m proud of our progress as an alliance.

One important aspect that is unwavering from year to year is the passion and dedication of our board, team, and members to achieving our mission and accomplishing our shared strategic priorities. Without your support and engagement, PQA would not be the vibrant and thriving organization that it is.    

I want to share highlights from five major areas of work in 2024. Each is unique, but together they represent PQA’s expansive work to improve medication use quality and position PQA for success in the years to come in our rapidly evolving health care ecosystem. 

1. Building the Foundation for Future Measurement of Oral Anticancer Medication Use

Last year, 23 national experts and patients were convened by PQA. Focused on oral anticancer medication use (OAM), they determined their number one measurement priority is a health plan performance measure assessing the degree to which patients take OAMs as prescribed. However, several aspects of OAMs present distinct hurdles to measuring adherence or persistence to therapy in a standardized and valid way.

This year, PQA has developed the plan and secured the resources and support needed for a project to provide a foundation of the required evidence base and formative analytic methods for measuring adherence or persistence to OAMs – a critical step toward standardized health plan performance measurement assessing the quality of OAM use.

Due to the complex nature of OAM use, this approach is necessary to appropriately account for important and unique attributes. Further, methodological inconsistencies in measuring adherence or persistence can lead to misinterpretation and erroneous conclusions, and data limitations can severely limit more robust approaches to measurement.

This is exciting and challenging work, and PQA is eager to get started. This two-year project will begin in early 2025.

2. Advancing the Quality of MTM Services

PQA launched a national initiative in 2023 to improve the quality of medication therapy management (MTM) services. As part of that initiative, PQA, its members and stakeholders developed a call to action to describe the critical actions necessary to meet these goals. Our August 2024 report, Advancing Medication Therapy Management Quality Measurement, describes critical actions necessary to advance the quality of MTM services.

Building on this important report, PQA launched the MTM Advisory Group to gain stakeholder feedback, consensus, and momentum to address short- and long-term objectives to advance MTM service quality and measurement. That work will continue in 2025. If you are a PQA member and interested in participating in this group, review the MTM Advisory Group information and complete the MTM Advisory Group Participation Request form. 

PQA is pleased to be the organization bringing the industry together to advance MTM quality.

3. Supporting Pharmacy-Payer Collaborations through PQA Pharmacy Measure Concept Pilots

PQA is leading the way in developing a standardized, national approach to evaluating and rewarding high-quality pharmacy services. Payers are eager to engage pharmacies in driving better patient care and outcomes, but for this effort to be successful, consistent and reliable methods are needed to measure pharmacists’ contributions to care. To advance these goals, PQA is piloting proof-of-concept pilots using PQA pharmacy measure concepts to evaluate the effectiveness of pharmacies in providing services that improve outcomes.

Earlier this year, PQA completed two pilots that used two blood pressure and two hemoglobin A1C pharmacy measure concepts in value-based payment arrangements (VBAs) between payers and pharmacies. This fall, we launched a pilot to evaluate the effectiveness of pharmacies in improving adult immunization rates through VBAs with payers. Results from this two-year project will be shared in 2026.

PQA continues to support the industry in its efforts to scale pharmacist-provided care in VBAs, and our measure concepts are an important piece of the puzzle.

4. Enhancing Health Equity and Diversity

The PQA Health Equity Technical Expert Panel (TEP) completed its work this year, and later this month we will publish their key recommendations for PQA measure testing and use in quality programs and for future iterations of PQA risk adjustment models.  Health equity remains a critical area of focus in the United States health care system. Numerous groups have been convened to advance health equity in health care quality measurement. However, limited information has been available that is specific and immediately actionable for PQA measures. The TEP’s recommendations address this gap, and we look forward to sharing them soon.

The PQA Diverse Quality Leaders program is completing its second year. The program provides education, training, event opportunities and mentorship for students, early career professionals and emerging leaders – all to support long-term professional development and advancement towards leadership positions. We were honored to receive a 2024 Power of Associations Gold Award from the American Society of Association Executives for the program.

Thanks to the support of our members, we will expand this program in 2025. We look forward to sharing details in January. If you or someone at your organization wants to get involved today, self-nominations are being accepted for the 2025 PQA Quality Shadowing Program until Friday, December 20. Individuals selected to participate in the first cycle for 2025 will be paired with PQA’s Quality Metrics Expert Panel or the Measure Update Panel. Contact us at [email protected] for questions about this program.

These are great examples of PQA’s work to champion diversity, equity and inclusion and address health disparities in medication use quality.

5. Planning for Our Future

Alongside PQA’s expansive programs and forward-focused initiatives to improve medication use quality, we are actively undergoing a transformation of our entire digital ecosystem to develop and implement the technology systems and resources needed for our digital future. From improving how we engage and support our members, to optimizing the accessibility and user-friendliness of our website, to enhancing the delivery of our products and services, these enhancements will drive strategic priorities, support mission alignment, and improve service to members and stakeholders.

Enabling this transformation and PQA’s broader work, the PQA Board of Directors voted to sell all of PQA’s shares in Pharmacy Quality Solutions to Innovaccer. The transaction was completed in March of this year. This action supports PQA’s long-term sustainability and viability and helps to ensure that our organization is equipped with the structure and resources necessary to meet its goals and achieve its mission. Concurrently, we have been operationalizing PQA’s revised bylaws. Approved by our members last December, these contemporized bylaws outline the structure and processes needed for our alliance’s continued growth as a modern, non-profit alliance.

Indeed, it has been a big year for PQA, and we have made progress on many fronts.

All of these exciting and impactful initiatives and programs are made possible thanks to the engagement, support, and contributions of our members and stakeholders, as well as the hard work and expertise of our team, and the leadership and vision of our Board of Directors. Together we continue to advance our mission of optimizing health by advancing the quality of medication use, and we look forward to working collectively to meet the opportunities and challenges in the new year.