CMS Awards Qualis Health Five-Year Contracts to Lead Quality Innovation Network for Idaho and Washington

July 21, 2014

New resources available to the region to improve healthcare quality and value

Qualis Health has been awarded five-year contracts by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to serve as the Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) for the states of Idaho and Washington, effective July 18, 2014. Work under the contracts will be driven around aligned efforts to improve healthcare value for patients and families across the region, focusing on these goals:

Promote effective prevention and treatment of chronic disease
Make care safer by reducing harm caused in the delivery of care
Promote effective communication and coordination of care
Make care more affordable

"These resources come at a time when Americans are demanding greater quality and value from the healthcare system," said Jonathan Sugarman, MD, MPH, Qualis Health President and CEO. "With the QIN-QIO contract implementation, communities across our region will benefit as we expand our team to include leading national experts in care transitions, patient and family engagement, and sophisticated data analysis to improve care for the 1.3 million Medicare beneficiaries in Idaho and Washington."

Qualis Health brings a sustained record of success in healthcare quality improvement and a strong record of collaboration with healthcare providers, community partners, and patients and families across the region. These collaborative efforts will be leveraged to deliver optimal results for patients and families under the new contracts. QIN-QIO contracts have been awarded to 14 organizations to work with providers and communities across the country on data-driven quality initiatives. QIN-QIO projects will be based in communities, healthcare facilities and clinical practices, driving quality by providing technical assistance, convening learning and action networks for sharing best practices, and collecting and analyzing data for improvement. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) National Quality Strategy and the CMS Quality Strategy provide the framework for the contracts.

Specifically, each QIN-QIO will work on strategic initiatives such as reducing healthcare associated infections, reducing readmissions and medication errors, working with nursing homes to improve care for residents, supporting clinical practices in using interoperable health information technology to enable the exchange of essential health information to improve the coordination of care, promoting prevention activities, reducing cardiac disease and diabetes, reducing health care disparities and improving patient and family engagement.

The QIO program has proven successful during the current contracts covering the 2011–2014 period:

Supporting nursing homes in achieving a 34% reduction in pressure ulcers among residents
Preventing potential adverse drug events, with more than 44,000 such events avoided
Contributing to a 53% reduction in hospital infections
Saving more than 100,000 people from being admitted or readmitted to a hospital, resulting in improved coordination of care and nearly one billion dollars in savings (although the savings estimated are not solely attributable to QIOs)

With these new contracts, Qualis Health welcomes participation by all who want to contribute to better care, better health and lower costs through improvement. For more information, visit Medicare.QualisHealth.org.

This material was prepared by Qualis Health, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Idaho and Washington, under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contents presented do not necessarily reflect CMS policy. ID/WA-C10-QH-1453-07-14.

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For media inquiries, please contact:

Evan Stults
Vice President, Communications
(206) 288-2458
evans@qualishealth.org