|
PRESS RELEASE PQA Call to Action Identifies Eight Areas for Improving Medication Therapy Management Service Quality and Measurement Call Developed as Part of National Initiative with Stakeholder Input Alexandria, Va. (August 12, 2024) – The Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) has issued an eight-point call to action for improving the quality and measurement of medication therapy management (MTM) services. The call was developed with extensive stakeholder input as part of a national, multi-phase initiative that PQA launched in 2023 to identify a pathway for new quality measures. It is the focus of a report published today, “Advancing Medication Therapy Management Quality Measurement.” “PQA, our members and the health care community have been exploring opportunities to develop MTM quality measures focused on service quality and clinical endpoints for years,” PQA CEO Micah Cost, PharmD, MS, CAE, said. “Challenges persist related to data and practice variation, complicating the path to new measures. Our call to action outlines a series of interrelated and necessary areas where additional work is needed to advance MTM-related quality improvement and measurement.” The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires Medicare Part D plan sponsors to establish an MTM program to ensure covered Part D drugs are appropriately used to optimize therapeutic outcomes and to reduce the risk of adverse events. PQA developed and stewards the health plan performance measure used in the Part D Star Ratings to evaluate MTM quality, which focuses on the MTM program completion rate for comprehensive medication review. “CMS has made significant changes to the MTM program requirements over the years to enhance enrollment, improve the quality of services and reduce gaps in care,” PQA Chief Quality and Innovation Officer Lisa Hines, PharmD, CPHQ, said. “In April, CMS finalized changes that will take effect next year and expand the eligibility criteria for the Part D MTM program. These significant changes to the MTM program and our call to action are an opportunity to advance the quality and measurement of MTM services.” The call to action’s eight elements are:
The elements are not in priority order and require partnerships and coordinated efforts from a multitude of stakeholders across the industry. Their development was informed by an environmental scan, an in-person convening event, public comment period and follow-up webinar. This MTM initiative is led by the PQA Quality Innovation and Research Center (QuIRC), a strategic initiative to accelerate progress in medication use quality and focus on clinical outcomes and provider contributions to care. The first phase of this initiative was funded in part by Novo Nordisk and Outcomes. PQA general funds, which include dues from PQA’s diverse, multi-stakeholder membership, also supported this work. ### Contact: Rachel Cormier, Senior Manager, Communications, [email protected] ________________________________ About PQA PQA, the Pharmacy Quality Alliance, is a national quality organization dedicated to improving medication safety, adherence and appropriate use. A measure developer, researcher, educator and convener, PQA’s quality initiatives support better medication use and high-quality care. PQA was established in 2006 as a public-private partnership with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 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. Today, PQA is an independent, non-profit organization with more than 200 diverse members across health care. The PQA Quality Innovation and Research Center (QuIRC) is a strategic initiative to accelerate progress in medication use quality and focus on clinical outcomes and provider contributions to care. Developing accurate and responsive outcomes-focused measures requires innovative approaches to measure development and research to ensure that measures are valid and useable in real-world settings. Through pilot, demonstration and research projects and consensus-building events, QuIRC answers the difficult questions needed to develop new, complex measures and effectively implement them. |