The PQA Annual Meeting continues on May 28 with the first of five weekly one-hour online sessions. Each week features a new educational session and an innovation theater, which is a commercial showcase of an organization’s innovations, technology, services or research.

All sessions take place on the 2020 PQA Annual Meeting website. Use the same username and password you used to access the May 13-15 sessions. Log in to your meeting account or update your profile, if needed. If you have any trouble, please email [email protected].

You can still register for the meeting, if you have not previously registered. Below are the upcoming sessions. Visit the meeting's agenda page for updates. 

May 28, 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET

The 2020 PQA Annual Meeting starts in two weeks on Wednesday, May 13. If you haven't made plans to join us, register today! All of the meeting sessions you would experience at our in-person meeting will be delivered online. 

The meeting takes place May 13-15 through five 90-minute sessions. If you can't be online for the full meeting, all sessions will be recorded and available to registrants on demand after the meeting. There is no registration cost for PQA members. 

PQA announced on Monday that the National Quality Forum has endorsed three PQA risk-adjusted adherence measures. These measures are used in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare Part D Star Ratings Program, and they evaluate adherence to medications for diabetes, hypertension and cholesterol.

The updated measures include a valid risk adjustment methodology for sociodemographic status factors. Accounting for these factors may impact patient health outcomes is important for ensuring that quality measures are applied fairly.

NQF recommends that performance-based measures be risk-adjusted for sociodemographic factors if there is scientific evidence that such factors affect the quality outcome measured. That recommendation is detailed in the Measure Developer Guidebook for Submitting Measures to NQF (PDF), which was last updated in September 2019. NQF’s rationale is supported in part by an earlier technical report: Risk Adjustment for Socioeconomic Status or Other Sociodemographic Factors (PDF).

CMS addressed this in the Announcement of Calendar Year (CY) 2021 Medicare Advantage (MA) Capitation Rates and Part C and Part D Payment Policies, which was released April 6. On pages 97-98, CMS discussed PQA’s measures and noted NQF’s recent endorsement, saying:

The risk-adjusted adherence measures were endorsed by the National Quality Forum (NQF) in the 2019 Spring cycle (NQF endorsed #0541). CMS will consider implementation of the PQA recommendations in the future for these Star Ratings measures (i.e., for the 2022 measurement year or beyond). Substantive measure changes must be proposed and finalized through rulemaking.

As the nation's most accessible health care professionals — and through telehealth — pharmacists are being empowered to provide critical patient services; however, this work is not without risk, which also needs to be addressed. PQA members are advocating for and supporting pharmacists as our health system’s medication experts. They are:

• Recommending policies to: authorize test-treat-immunize; ease operational barriers to address workforce and workflow issues; address shortages and continuity of care; and reimburse for services and remove barriers
• Highlighting best practices to ensure the safety of pharmacists, while leveraging their experience and skills to meet the needs of patients
• Establishing guidelines to limit COVID exposures and protocols for pharmacists and pharmacy staff, who have had contact with infected patients

PQA Members in Action

Drug Shortages – and COVID-19

Early refills, drug substitutions, off-label use and supply chain interruptions may all contribute to drug shortages sparked by the COVID-19 crisis. PQA members are anticipating and responding to potential drug shortages. Here are some of the ways they’re taking action.

Access to Care 

Social distancing, unemployment and current or anticipated financial difficulties for millions of Americans are affecting access to care and access to medications. PQA members are taking steps to overcome and eliminate the barriers that reduce patient access to care during the COVID crisis. Those efforts include:

Every PQA member is involved in the fight against COVID-19, which is affecting every aspect of healthcare, including medication use quality. PQA wants to share with you some of the ways our member are addressing COVID challenges as the relate to:

• Access to care -- Social distancing, unemployment and current or anticipated financial difficulties for millions of Americans is affecting access to care and access to medications.
• Drug shortages -- Early refills, drug substitutions, off-label use and supply chain interruptions may all contribute to drug shortages sparked by this crisis.
• Pharmacist empowerment -- As the nation's most accessible health care professionals — and through telehealth — pharmacists are being empowered to provide critical patient services; however, this work is not without risk, which also needs to be addressed.

This week, we will debut an individual blog post dedicated to each of these three areas. The posts will include links to the actions our members are taking. The lists are far from exhaustive and will be updated periodically. We welcome additional online and publicly available resources that our members would like to share. You can email suggested links to us at [email protected]. 

Laura Cranston, RPh
PQA Chief Executive Officer

The COVID-19 crisis is greatly affecting medication use, services and quality. Early refills, potential shortages, drug substitutions, reduced clinical visits and looming financial challenges for patients will all have an impact on medication adherence, patient outcomes and quality measure performance. At the same time, the expansion of telehealth services and growing roles for pharmacy staff could lead to innovative, long-term solutions for improving medication safety and appropriate use.

PQA is launching a blog.

It's a new information channel to keep you updated on our work -- in measure development, research, education and convening.