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AHRQ Seeks Submissions For New Health Care
Innovations Exchange Web Site Grassley/Baucus Bill Seeks to Strip QIOs of
Beneficiary Protection Functions Executive Order 13410: One Year Summary Reports
on Transparency Effort AHRQ Report: State-level Privacy and Security
Solutions CMS Guidance on Tamper-Resistant Prescription
Pads New Tip Sheet on Medicare Drugs Joint MEPS-HCUP Training Workshop AHRQ Handbook on Patient Registries Available Satellite Broadcast for Caregivers Certification Commission INVITES COMMENTS ON
NEW 2008 WORK AHRQ is seeking submissions for its new Health Care Innovations Exchange,
a dual-component initiative that is designed to support health care professionals
in sharing and adopting innovations that improve health care quality. The two components are a searchable, Web-based national repository
of health service innovations and dynamic communities of learning. Through the AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange Web site, physicians,
nurses, and other health professionals and providers will be able to
obtain detailed profiles of innovative activities and tools, and have
opportunities to exchange successes, failures, stories and lessons learned
with innovators and fellow adopters. Users of this site will also have
access to educational materials on how to innovate. Innovations described in the AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange
will represent varying degrees of novelty and scientific rigor and cover
many clinical disciplines and care settings in both the public and private
sector. The dynamic communities of learning will allow for collaboration
and cross-disciplinary interactions that will heighten understanding
of the relevance of an innovation to a potential adopter’s organizational
contexts and expand on the effort needed to replicate uptake of the innovation. The
goal is to accelerate change and transformation in real-world health
care. To learn more about how to submit innovations, visit the AHRQ Health
Care Innovations Exchange Web site at www.innovations.ahrq.gov. For more information or to interview an AHRQ expert about the AHRQ
Health Care Innovations Exchange, please contact Cheryl Thompson at (301)
427-1271 or via email at cheryl.thompson@ahrq.hhs.gov. AHQA Opposes Provisions, Seeks Public Forum to Discuss Bill Senators Grassley (R-IA) and Baucus (D-MT) recently introduced a proposal
to modernize the QIO program. The “Continuing the Advancement of
Quality Improvement (CAQI) Act of 2007” (S. 1947) seeks to secure
the quality improvement functions of QIOs but removes beneficiary protection
activities from the program, giving the function to a new system contractors – the
Medicare Provider Review Organizations (MPROs). Several of the quality improvement provisions in the CAQI Act are consistent
with positions long advocated by the American Health Quality Association,
which represents the national network of QIOs, including: stronger contractor
evaluation, more competition for QIO contracts, improved federal reports
to Congress, permitting patient data sharing with physicians for quality
and safety reasons, and provisions to reinforce the QIO role in validating
and facilitating public reporting of quality measures for use by providers,
consumers, and purchasers. However, there are a number of provisions
that are very problematic, possibly causing undue turmoil to providers
and beneficiaries, and permitting misallocation of Medicare Trust Fund
dollars apportioned to the QIO program. Some of these provisions include: All federal departments assigned with health care responsibilities recently
provided one year progress reports on President Bush’s Executive
Order, “Promoting Quality and Efficient Health Care in Federal
Government Administered or Sponsored Health Care Programs.” Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Michael Leavitt
released summaries from four federal departments and agencies (HHS, Department
of Defense, Office of Personal Management, and the Department of Veteran’s
Affairs) showing their actions toward achieving the goals of the President’s
directive, which centered on four cornerstones: “In its first year, the President’s Executive Order has
begun to have a culture-changing effect in the health care sector,” Secretary
Leavitt said. “For the first time, we are working effectively
together to make possible reliable and consistent measures of quality
and price. This is the foundation we must have for a future of
affordable, effective, and high quality health care.” In a press release, Secretary Leavitt also recognized private sector
efforts to improve quality and price reporting and expand use of interoperable
health information technology and align incentives for achieving value.
More than 800 employers and over 20 states have recognized the Executive
Order through signed public declarations, affecting more than 100 million
insured Americans. The HHS portion of the report included efforts being conducted through
the following agencies: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
(CMS), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), National Coordinator
for Health Information Technology, and the Indian Health Services. Though QIOs are involved in many aspects of the Secretary’s transparency
agenda through such as efforts as the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative
and serving as Community Leaders to bring together Value Exchanges under
a program administered by AHRQ, it was the QIO work with the Doctor’s
Office Quality-Information Technology Project (DOQ-IT) that received
individual attention in the report. “We are pleased that the Secretary
highlights the importance of DOQ-IT in his report, and that he acknowledges
the good work done by CMS and the QIOs to speed the nation’s transition
to electronic health information,” said David Schulke, AHQA Executive
Vice President. Read the press release at: http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2007pres/08/pr20070823a.html Read the report summaries at: http://www.hhs.gov/valuedriven/federal/eoreport.pdf Read the July 2007 issue of “The Cornerstone” an eNewsletter
on Value Driven Health Care at: http://www.hhs.gov/valuedriven/cornerstone6.pdf The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has developed
a set of reports aimed at helping states address privacy and security
issues in Health Information Exchange (HIE) efforts. The reports, “Privacy
and Security Solutions for Interoperable Health Information Exchange,” “Address
one of the greatest concerns that Americans have about health information
technology: Will their personal data be safe?” said AHRQ Director
Carolyn M. Clancy, MD. Thirty-four state Health Information Exchange
(HIE) plans were reviewed to identify challenges and solutions for the
safe and secure exchange of electronic health information. “The report findings and recommendations will provide ongoing
guidance for local, state and federal governments as we move toward greater
interoperability,” explained Robert Kolodner, MD, National Coordinator
for Health Information Technology. Some of the key findings point to the need for additional research and
guidance on: The reports can be downloaded from AHRQ’s Health IT Web site at: http://www.healthit.ahrq.gov. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently sent
a letter to State Medicaid Directors offering guidance on the use of
tamper-resistant prescription pads. Section 7002(b) of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina
Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act of 2007, requires
that a tamper-resistant prescription pad be used for all written, non-electronic
prescriptions for Medicaid outpatient drugs in order for them to be reimbursable
by the federal government. The recent letter gives baseline requirements
to States so they can implement requirements for use by the October 1,
2007 deadline. By the October 2007 deadline, states must require all Medicaid prescriptions
to meet at least one of the following three characteristics: 1) prevent
unauthorized copying of a completed or blank prescription form; 2) prevent
the erasure or modification of information written on the prescription
by the prescriber; or 3) prevent the use of counterfeit prescription
forms. By October 1, 2008, states must require that all three conditions
be met in order for a prescription pad to be considered tamper-resistant
an the prescription reimbursable by federal funds. The state Medicaid Director letter is available at: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/SMDL/downloads/SMD081707.pdf;
a policy backgrounder for state policymakers is available at: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/DeficitReductionAct/Downloads/Tamper.pdf CMS recently released a new partner tip sheet, “Information Partners
can Use: Medicare Drug Coverage under Medicare Part A, Part B and Part
D,” which provides an overview on the drugs covered within each
of the Medicare program components. This tip sheet helps clarify drug
coverage for providers and partners assisting beneficiaries with chronic
diseases and drug coverage enrollment. The tip sheet is available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/Partnerships/PFP/list.asp (search
for Pub#11315-P). Registration is open for AHRQ’s joint MEPS and HCUP Data Users
Workshop, which will be held September 19-20 at the Eisenberg Building
in Rockville, Maryland. The workshop is designed to help health researchers
understand how to use data from the two AHRQ data resources: the Medical
Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the Healthcare Cost and Utilization
Project (HCUP). An overview of the two data resources will be provided
on the first day followed by hands-on training the second day. Details
and registration are available at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/about_meps/workshop_details/ A handbook recently released by HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality represents a federal initiative to help researchers and others
use patient registries to evaluate the impacts of health care treatments. The new document, “Registries for Evaluating Patient Outcomes:
A User’s Guide,” is the first government-supported handbook
for establishing, managing, and analyzing patient registries. Handbook
development was co-funded by AHRQ and HHS’ Centers
for Medicare & Medicaid Services. A patient registry is a database of confidential patient information
that can be analyzed to understand and compare the outcomes and safety
of health care. The data may originate from multiple sources, including
hospitals, pharmacy systems, physician practices, and insurance companies. Topics covered in the new guide include how registries should
be designed, what types of data sources may be accessed, and how to encourage
participation among patients and health care providers. Also included
are chapters on detecting adverse events, interpretation of data, and
how to handle issues related to ethics and publication of research papers. The patient registry guide is a product of AHRQ’s Effective Health
Care Program. The guide is downloadable from the EHC Web site, http://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov,
and is available in two printed forms – as the full-length document
and as a 13-page summary with a best practices checklist. Free copies
may be ordered from the AHRQ Publications Clearinghouse by sending an
e-mail to AHRQPubs@ahrq.hhs.gov or
calling 1-800-358-9295. For more information, call Bruce Seeman, AHRQ public affairs, (301)
427-1998. The New Freedom Initiative (NFI) Subcommittee on Caregiving
will present a satellite broadcast on Wednesday, September 19, 2007,
from 1:00 – 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time to
provide information on the range of programs and services available to
support caregivers and to increase coordination of resources and services
for caregivers, providers, and partners. NFI is a government-wide effort
to eliminate the barriers that prevent people with disabilities from
participating fully in community life. Presenters include: Kerry Weems, Administrator Nominee, Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services; Josefina Carbonell, Assistant Secretary
for Aging for the Administration on Aging; Margaret Giannini, MD, Director
HHS Office on Disability; Gail Gibson Hunt, National Alliance for Caregiving;
Gary Quinn, Indian Health Service; Faith McCormick, Administration on
Developmental Disabilities; Diana Denboba, Health Resources and Services
Administration; and others. Registration and information are available
at: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/events/event.asp?id=378. The Certification Commission for Health care Information Technology
(CCHIT) recently announced that it will publish environmental scans – the
first step in developing certification for 2008 – from each of
its 10 work groups on September 13. A 30 day comment period will immediately
follow. “During the environmental scan, our work groups gather standards,
use cases, and other emerging requirements for health IT, and also make
an assessment of the readiness of the marketplace,” said Mark Leavitt,
MD, PhD, Certification Commission chairman. “This provides the
evidence base needed to make fair and balanced decisions on what criteria
to require, and when to do so.” Environmental scans will be produced by work groups in the following
10 areas: foundation; ambulatory; inpatient; network (health information
exchanges); emergency department; cardiovascular medicine; child health;
interoperability; security; and privacy and compliance. Publication of the materials on Sept. 13 will kick off a 30-day public
comment period during which industry representatives and health care
stakeholders are invited to submit input. Details on how to submit comments
will be available on www.cchit.org. The environmental scans will lead to a draft of the 2008 criteria, which
the Commission plans to publish for review and comment in late November. A series of three Town Call teleconferences are scheduled for Sept.
19 to discuss the environment scans. Call times and topics to be covered
are as follows: 11 a.m. ET – Network, Interoperability, Security, and Privacy
and Compliance 1 p.m. ET – Cardiovascular Medicine, Emergency Department, and
Child Health 4 p.m. ET – Foundation, Ambulatory, and Inpatient Each presentation will be followed by an interactive question and answer
session. Presentation materials and details on how to participate
in the teleconference will be posted to www.cchit.org.  Home :: Inside AHQA :: For The Media :: Public Policy :: Advancing Quality :: Quality Connections :: SiteMap
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