About PQA

PQA, the Pharmacy Quality Alliance, is the nation’s leading developer of consensus-based measures for medication safety, adherence and appropriate use. A non-profit organization with more than 250 diverse members across healthcare, PQA’s quality initiatives support improvements in medication use and medication services. PQA was established in 2006 as a public-private partnership with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shortly after the implementation of the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Benefit.

PQA was created because prescription drug programs were a major area of health care where there was no organization or national program focused on quality improvement. PQA measures help healthcare professionals assess the quality of health plans and the services they cover. They are used in the Medicare Star Ratings program and Medicaid and have been endorsed or implemented by numerous other healthcare organizations.

PQA members include community and specialty pharmacy organizations, pharmacists and other healthcare providers, pharmacies, health plans, pharmacy benefit managers, life sciences, technology vendors, government agencies, health information technology partners, researchers, accrediting organizations and academia.

Highlights from PQA's Current Work

Five PQA measures are included in the Medicare Part D Star Ratings. PQA measures account for 40% of a health plan’s Part D Summary Star Rating.
PQA provides important and timely tools to address the opioid epidemic. PQA has an Opioid Core Measure set, which includes seven measures to evaluate patients with prescriptions for opioids at high-dosage, from multiple prescribers and pharmacies, in combination with benzodiazepines, or initial opioid prescriptions.
PQA is addressing social determinants of health that stand between patients and the medications they need with a Medication Access Framework for Quality Measurement.
PQA collaborates with pharmacists and payers to foster the adoption of pharmacist-provided care, a value-based care model where outcomes — including medication adherence, clinical status and patient satisfaction — can be tracked and measured.

Our Mission

Optimizing Health by Advancing the Quality of Medication Use

PQA's Evolution from a Measure Developer to a Quality Organization

PQA was established in 2006 as a public-private partnership with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) shortly after the implementation of the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Benefit. Since the early years developing measures for the Star Ratings program, the multi-stakeholder membership of PQA has engaged in a transparent, consensus-based development process. This foundation was the basis for PQA’s evolution to be a nationally recognized quality organization with industry roles as a measure developer, quality educator, researcher, and convener.