Schedule

Peggy O’Kane
President
NCQA

Michael Barr, MD
Executive Vice President, Quality Measurement & Research Group
NCQA

Brad Ryan, MD
Chief Product Officer
NCQA

Joseph R. Betancourt, MD, MPH
Senior Vice President, Equity and Community Health
Massachusetts General Hospital

Anne Docimo, MD
Chief Medical Officer
UnitedHealthcare 

Amy Berk
Director
Population Health, Microsoft

HEDIS Measurement Year (MY) 2021 Update

During this course, NCQA staff share updates to measures for HEDIS M2021 and discuss key dates for data collection.

Speakers:

Cindy Ottone
Director, Measures Policy Quality Measurement and Research
NCQA

Be Netflix, Not Blockbuster: Best Practices in Telehealth Workflows

Health care providers were hit with an unprecedented challenge in 2020: Enhance--or create--telehealth programs practically overnight to provide care to their communities while reducing unnecessary exposure for patients and staff. Some organizations got their programs off the ground easily, but many are still searching for a smooth experience that both staff and patients would willingly choose over the "old way." This course will share best practices for telehealth workflows collected from organizations across the country, including how to increase patient telehealth virtual (not telephone) visit volume, reduce patient telehealth cycle times, improve patient access through the "digital front door," schedule optimally for hybrid in-person and telehealth systems, address quality metrics and reduce staff and provider burnout, even across the "digital divides" that exists for many patients who do not have access to reliable internet.

Speakers:

Amanda Laramie
Chief Operations Officer (COO)
Coleman Associates

Best Practices for Patient Engagement With Telehealth

This course presents a panel discussion about the telehealth experiences of a provider and patient/patient advocates, from when an appointment is made through the after-visit follow-up. The panel will discuss how telehealth has improved their health care experience and how to overcome obstacles that prevent easy access to care, and will identify strategies for avoiding the glitches that frustrate patients and providers.

Speakers:

Diann Folkersen
Patient and Family Advisory Council
Comagine Health (formerly Health Insight)

Psarah Johnson
Board Chair
Disabled Rights Action Committee

Dan McDyer, MD, FACOG
Florida Woman Care of Jacksonville

Learning in Action: Implementing a Primary Care Telehealth Response During COVID-19

During this course, attendees learn how the Care Transformation Collaborative of Rhode Island (CTC-RI) helped primary care practices respond to telehealth implementation challenges through a three-pronged “learning in action” approach. Areas of focus include development and implementation of needs assessment surveys; utilization of results to inform telehealth webinar topics that align with proposed PCMH/PCSP Telehealth Distinction Requirements; and development and implementation of a primary care 12-month telehealth learning collaborative that let practices test/use telehealth services to improve care for patients with chronic conditions. Hear from a primary care practice that participated in this initiative and get sample tools and resources to apply in your primary care practice setting.

Speakers:

Susanne Caldwell, RN, MS, PCMH CCE
Senior Program Director
Care Transformation Collaborative-Rhode Island

Sue Dettling, BS, PCMH CCE
Practice Facilitator & Telehealth Project Manager
Care Transformation Collaborative-Rhode Island

Marna Heck-Jones
IT EHR and Quality Data Coordinator
Care Transformation Collaborative-Rhode Island

Specialist Quality Measurement

For so long, the goal to improve health care has focused on primary care quality and overlooked the significance of specialist care's contributions toward that goal. The path to improving quality measurement lies in greater acquisition and analysis of clinical data. 

Speakers:

Terri Kitchen
Divisional Vice President, Quality and Accreditation
Blue Cross Blue Shield IL

Combining Technology and Tents: The Use of Telehealth to Promote Safe Access to Well-Child Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic created a need for primary care practices to pivot quickly toward telehealth to improve access to care. This course will include strategies for implementing a phased approach to telehealth, starting with infants and expanding to other age groups, that can serve as a resource for practices initiating or expanding delivery of telehealth.

Speakers:

Michelle Karten, MD, MSHQS, FAAP
Medical Director
Nemours duPont Pediatrics, Department of Population Health Management

Alanna Drake, MA, PCMH CCE
Practice Transformation Specialist
Nemours duPont Pediatrics, Department of Population Health Management

Hospital at Home: A Leading Care Model for the Future?

Hospital at Home is an innovative patient care model that picked up traction during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is growing in the U.S. and internationally, and is part of the expanding movement to deliver health care in people’s homes. While early success with the model shows feasibility, improved outcomes and lower costs for certain patients with select conditions and building consensus across providers, payers and policymakers is key for ensuring long-term success for this emerging model. Join NCQA and Hospital at Home experts for a 90-minute roundtable discussion of early successes and emerging policies and infrastructure considerations. Faculty include policymakers, private industry representatives and researchers.

Speakers:

Caroline Blaum, MD, MS
Senior Research Scientist
NCQA

Bruce Leff, MD
Professor of Medicine, Director, Center for Transformative Geriatric Research, Division of Geriatric Medicine, Nemours duPont Pediatrics, Department of Population Health Management
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Raphael Rakowski
Executive Chairman, Chief Development Officer, and Co-Founder
Medically Home

Amal Agarwal DO, MBA
Vice President, Home Solutions Business Development and Strategy
Humana, Inc.

John Halamka, MD, MS
President
Mayo Clinic Platform

Implementing Program-Level Change for Health Equity in Value-Based Care

This course examines structured models for advancing community-based programs in population health. Purpose-interrelated topics include future quality and value-based care pathways, social determinants of health, a deep dive into the implications of COVID-19 and emerging health care trends.

Speakers:

Vanessa Guzman
CEO & President
SmartRise Health

Staying Connected to Patients in a Pandemic Through Telehealth

As a Federally Qualified Health Center, Greater Portland Health (GPH) provides primary medical, behavioral and dental health services to Greater Portland's most vulnerable residents, including low-income individuals and families, the homeless, immigrant/refugee/asylum-seekers, children, elderly and the under-/uninsured. Its primary goal during the COVID-19 pandemic has been to remain fully operational and continue to support patients while keeping staff safe. This has required staff to implement telehealth services--something never used before at GPH.

Speakers:

Ann Tucker
Chief Executive Officer
Portland Community Health Center, dba Greater Portland Health

Preventing Diabetic Complications: An FQHC Approach

Swope Health Services serves a vulnerable underserved patient population that has many high-risk factors for complications of diabetes. Using PCMH principles, it built an EMR (e clinical works) tool for effective previsit planning—even in an open access setting—and linked it to other electronic tools, such as in-office retinal exam devices, to improve diabetes outcomes and focus on tertiary prevention.

Speakers:

Naiomi Jamal, MD, MPH, CMQ
Chief Quality Officer
Swope Health Services

Person-Driven Outcomes: Driving Care That Matters

There is broad agreement that individuals’ priorities and health goals should guide their care, but existing quality measures do not effectively evaluate what is most important to individuals, particularly older adults with multiple chronic conditions, serious illness or frailty. Current health care quality measures use a “one-size-fits-all” approach that does not work when individuals face complex trade-offs in determining the right course of treatment or when they need services and supports beyond traditional medical care. The person-driven outcomes approach individualizes measurement based on what people identify as most important. Quality measures created on this approach have the potential to fill a critical gap in the current system of value-based payment. This course will discuss implementating person-driven outcomes in clinical practice and incorporating the patient voice into quality measurement.

Speakers:

Angelia Bowman, MS, MSPM
Director, Research & Analysis
NCQA

Caroline Blaum, MD, MS
Senior Research Scientist, Performance Measurement
NCQA

Scott Mancuso, MD
Chief Clinical Officer - West
Landmark Health

Michael Mason, MD
Lead Clinician
Kaiser Permanente MyCareMyHome Program

Aanand Naik, MD
Robert J. Luchi Chair and Chief of Geriatrics and Palliative Care
Baylor College of Medicine

Addressing Social Determinants of Health--A Resource Guide

This course includes highlights from the recently developed NCQA guide on social determinants of health--a resource for health plans, clinically integrated networks and clinicians to design and implement strategies that address SDOH for commercially insured populations. NCQA staff will facilitate a discussion of strategies, NCQA programs and in-the-field examples to improve SDOH interventions.

Speakers:

Keri Christensen
Director, Strategy Implementation
NCQA

Brittani Spaulding
Manager, QSG
NCQA

Denys Lau
Senior Research Scientist
NCQA

Jacqueline Willits
Health Care Analyst
NCQA

An Equity Approach to People-Centered Virtual Care Policy Design

This course features USofCare policy and research and community engagement staff, as well as a member of USofCare’s Founder’s Council or Voices of Real Life, sharing their perspective from the community. Panelists will explain their people-centered policy design and showcase findings on barriers that diverse communities face when accessing virtual care, and policy solutions to overcome those barriers. Panelists will share their mixed-methods approach for listening to people about their experiences with virtual care (listening sessions, focus groups, 1:1 conversations, public opinion, commissioning research) to learn about their needs, desired outcomes and potential policy solutions. The discussion will also cover how quantitative knowledge is paired with research evidence and expert opinion to ensure an equitable approach to virtual care.

Speakers:

Venice Haynes, PHD
Director of Research & Community Engagement
United States of Care

Jennifer DeYoung
Director of Policy, Building Blocks of Health Reform
United States of Care

Abner Mason
Founder and CEO of ConsejoSano
ConsejoSano

Omar Ibarra
Former USofCare Policy Intern
NCQA

Addressing Health Disparities in Quality Measurement: An Examination of the "Vital Few"

This session shares how a health provider prioritized a subset of quality measures targeted at high risk patients for action. Through tools revamping, operational teams were equipped to shift from their traditional outreach program to fully implement new work driven by the "Vital Few" measures. Results show an appreciable impact in reducing disparities in quality outcomes for the target measures and population.

Speakers:

Edward Yu, MD, CMQ, CPPS, CPE
Director
Palo Alto Medical Foundation/Sutter Health

Improving Quality and Efficiency of Care: The Power of Standardized Electronic Health Records

Electronic health records have the potential to improve quality of care and patient safety, but key quality data is often spread over multiple locations in the electronic chart, necessitating extensive, time-consuming reviews in order to obtain a complete and timely picture of a patient. The time required to perform a comprehensive chart review results in less time spent in direct face-to-face patient care, diminished clinical efficiency and increased risk of provider burnout, which in turn can have a detrimental impact on quality of care.

Speakers:

Balakrishna Mudavath
Senior Analyst
Cleveland Clinic

Allison Weathers, MD, FAAN
Associate Chief Medical Information Officer
Cleveland Clinic

Steven Shook, MD, MBA
Strategic Lead for Virtual Health
Cleveland Clinic

Building Better Care–Developing a Health Care Quality Index

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) sought input and collaboration from a "coalition of the willing" key stakeholders to address inequities in its members’ health care and in the state as a whole. This course highlights development of a Health Care Equity Index--a tool to help identify opportunities to improve health equity in a health plan, monitor progress toward closing disparities and help communities and the state meet health care equity goals--as well as challenges and lessons learned.

Speakers:

Qi Zhou, MD
Vice President, Enterprise Quality Strategy and Management
Anthem

John R. Lumpkin, MD, MPH 
President
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation
Vice President, Drivers of Health Strategy
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina

Double Jeopardy - Pandemic and Health Disparities: Collaborative, Data-Driven Community Interventions and Innovation During Crisis

In health care, as in other industries, disaster often inspires innovation. By April 23, 2020, Dallas, Texas, had 2,763 cases of COVID-19 and 72 deaths. The hospital in-patient and ER were strained. To contain the spread of the virus in the community, the Parkland Health & Hospital System team, in partnership with PCCI, developed a multi-prong, technology-based solution. To date, over 500,000 upcoming clinical encounters have been prescreened for risk, resulting in relatively early detection and treatment of cases and decreasing potential exposure to the health system.

Speakers:

Anjum Varshney, RN, MBA, PCMH CCE
Associate Director Performance Improvement
Parkland Health & Hospital System

Vidya Ayyr, MPH
Director of Social Impact
Parkland Health & Hospital System

Brett Moran, MD
SVP, Associate Chief Medical Officer, CMIO
Parkland Health & Hospital System

Donna Persaud, MD, MBA
Homes Medical Director
Parkland Health & Hospital System

Optimizing Community Health Workers and Population Monitoring Techniques to Address Social Determinants of Health

This session defines the future role of the community health worker in bridging the health equity gap in the clinical setting. This course includes applied methods and analytic tools for assessing social determinants of health at the community level.

Speakers:

Amy Goodman, LCSW, CPC-A, PCMH CCE
Senior Project Manager
Primary Care Development Corporation

Sarahjane Rath, MPH, CHES
Trainer & Curriculum Development Specialist
Primary Care Development Corporation

Creating Alignment Between Value-Based Care, Quality Programs and Health Equity Objectives

This course examines structured models for advancing community-based programs in population health. Purpose-interrelated topics include future quality and value-based care pathways, social determinants of health, a deep dive into the implications of COVID-19 and emerging health care trends.

Speakers:

Vanessa Guzman
CEO & President
SmartRise Health

Implementing a Population Health Focused Quality Program across an Integrated Network

This course examines opportunities for implementing a networkwide QI program through a population health lens, with a focus on behavioral health. Speakers share considerations for value-based payment contracts with payers, including managed care organizations, on behalf of clinically integrated provider networks, to provide health care and related social services.

Speakers:

Jessica Frisco, RN, BSN, MPH
Director, Quality and Compliance
AsOne

Caroline Heindrichs, MA
Executive Director
AsOne

Daniel Korovikov, Psy.D.
Director of Analytics
Astor Services

Eating Disorders: A Look Inside a Virtual Treatment Center

On March 17, 2020, Walden Behavioral Care began providing telehealth treatment for ambulatory clients, in an unprecedented attempt to avoid disruption of treatment of eating disorders during the COVID-19 crisis.

This course is an introduction to eating disorders, diagnosis, assessment and interventions, and summarizes what Walden has learned over the past year of providing ambulatory care for people with eating disorders via telehealth.

Speakers:

Rebekah Bardwell Doweyko, LPC, CEDS-S
Assistant Vice President of Clinical Operations
Walden Behavioral Care

Rachel Egan, PMHNP
Associate Medical Director for Ambulatory Services
Walden Behavioral Care

Michael Chiumiento, Psy.D
Clinical Director of Adolescent Services
Walden Behavioral Care

Kate Craigen, Ph.D
Director of Clinical Integrity and Innovation
Walden Behavioral Care

Improving Chronic Kidney Disease Care Through Toolkit-Supported Strategies

This course will highlight recently-developed tools and resources related to enhancing the quality of chronic kidney disease (CKD) care including the Office of Minority Health and NCQA’s CKD Disparities: Educational Guide for Primary Care, Bayer and NCQA’s Kidney Health Toolkit, and a new performance measure on kidney health evaluations for people with diabetes. The course will also feature a panel discussion with input from patient, health plan, and provider perspectives on how to improve CKD care and outcomes.

Speakers:

Dawn Edwards
Patient Advocate

Delphine S. Tuot, MDCM, MAS
Associate Professor of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco

Shannon Davis, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, RCEP, CDCES
Senior Manager Quality Improvement
Blue Cross Blue Shield

Karen Onstad, MPH, MPP
Director, Quality Solutions Group
NCQA

Alyssa Hart, MPH
Senior Healthcare Analyst
NCQA

Emily Hubbard
Health Care Analyst
NCQA

Geographic and Racial Disparities in Behavioral Health Services in Michigan Medicaid

Federal rules require state Medicaid managed care programs to develop a quality strategy that includes a plan to "identify, evaluate, and reduce... health disparities based on age, race, ethnicity, sex, primary language, and disability status." This work may be delegated to managed care entities that might be technically and operationally unprepared to take it on. Without assistance, health care program leaders may have difficulty figuring out where and how to start. Using data from the Michigan Medicaid agency, four quality of care measures were stratified by race/ethnicity and county for measurement years 2018-2020. Results indicate that racial/ethnic disparities exist for most measures, in all counties, in all years. And although there are differences in performance across counties, there are also clear trends.

Speakers:

Jim McEvoy, MHSA
Principal
Health Management Associates

Monica Trevino, MA, CPHQ
Director of Center for Social Enterprise
Michigan Public Health Institute

Tackling Disease Care in Rural Communities Through a State-Based Collaborative

During this course, we assess population health improvement opportunities and interventions for rural communities. In a state-based collaborative, practices are guided to choose a track/focus for increasing capacity and providing resources to patients for diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia. Tracks include the ability to implement or connect to programs such as the National Diabetes Prevention Program, diabetes self-management education and incorporating clinical pharmacists and other clinical team members into the care team. Other improvement strategies include team-based care, EHR optimization, quality data and developing workflows and protocols that closely align with the PCMH model.

Speakers:

Lindsay Williams, RHIT, CCA, PCMH CCE
Practice Transformation Consultant
South Carolina Office of Rural Health

LaShandal Pettaway-Brown, MHA, MBA, PCMH CCE
Practice Transformation Consultant
South Carolina Office of Rural Health

Bridging the Gaps: Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder

This course examines treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) from a clinical and research perspective. It will review approved medications and their pharmacology, efficacy and safety. Panelists will discuss these lifesaving medications (currently underutilized), describe characteristics of Medicare beneficiaries with OUD and highlight disparities and gaps in access to medications for treating OUD among underserved Medicare populations. The course will close with a discussion of successful models for implementation of primary care-based treatment of OUD.

Speakers:

Dan P. Alford, MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean of Continuing Medical Education
Boston University School of Medicine

Judy Ng, PhD, MPH
Research Scientist - Quality Measurement and Research Group
NCQA

Leveraging Clinical Champions to Create a Culture of High-Value Care

The transition to value-based care is fixed on payment models, with scarce attention to stewarding a culture of value within the care setting. However, clinicians are uniquely positioned to champion high-value care initiatives and to increase peer engagement. In this course, we discuss a peer-mentoring model dedicated to clinical decisions focused on value-based care delivery.

Speakers:

Michael Parchman, MD
Director, RWJF Clinical Value Champion Fellowship Program
Kaiser Permanente

Distinction in Behavioral Health Integration: Success Stories From Clinicians on the Front Lines

Behavioral health continues to be at the forefront of health care, affecting quality of life and health outcomes, and the pandemic's impact has increased the number of patients who could benefit from behavioral health integration in primary care practices. NCQA Distinction in Behavioral Health Integration provides guidance for practices to establish solid and effective processes for ensuring that patients continue to get the right care at the right time, whether it's primary care or a behavioral health intervention. This special QIS course lets participants hear directly from clinicians who have embraced NCQA’s Distinction in Behavioral Health Integration. Their success stories will resonate with and inspire any practice interested in taking the next steps toward providing coordinated care between behavioral health and primary care clinicians.

Speakers:

Jennifer Anglin, MS, CHES, PCMH CCE
Manager, Recognition Policy
NCQA

Ritu Chandra, MD, FAAP
Founder/Pediatrician
Preferred Medical Group

Jodi Polaha, Ph.D
Professor, Family Medicine; Director, Institute for Integrated Behavioral Health Organization
Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University

Matthew Tolliver, Ph.D
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics; Assistant Director, Institute for Integrated Behavioral Health
Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University

HEDIS Measurement Year (MY) 2022 Volume 2 Changes

Join NCQA measure champions as they discuss the rationale behind development of new measures, changes to existing measures and overall volume 2 updates for HEDIS MY 2022.

Speakers:

Nancy McGee, MS, MBA
Senior Health Care Analyst, Quality Measurement and Research Group
NCQA

Pam Lighter, MPH
Senior Research Associate, Quality Measurement and Research Group
NCQA

Cindy Ottone, MHA
Director, Measures Policy Quality Measurement and Research
NCQA

Rachel Harrington, PhD
Research Scientist, Quality Measurement and Research Group
NCQA

Lyndsey Nguyen, MS
Senior Health Care Analyst, Quality Measurement and Research Group
NCQA

Emily Hubbard, MS
Health Care Analyst, Quality Measurement and Research Group
NCQA

Deidre Washington, PhD
Research Scientist, Quality Measurement and Research Group
NCQA

Danielle Rainis, MPH
Health Care Analyst, Quality Measurement and Research Group
NCQA

A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Behavioral Health Distinction Can Position IBH Best Practices

This course is an opportunity to learn how the Care Transformation Collaborative of Rhode Island helped integrated behavioral health (IBH) practices respond to COVID by tele-IBH implementation and earn Behavioral Health Distinction. Areas of focus include working with state and payers to align expectations across the health care system for IBH and sustainability; developing and implementing a 12-month tele-IBH learning collaborative that gives PCMH practices an opportunity to test tele-IBH workflows while working toward earning Behavioral Health Distinction; and developing practical tools to strategically approach earning Behavioral Health Distinction.

Speakers:

Nelly Burdette, Psy.D.
Associate Vice President, Integrated Behavioral Health, Providence Community Health Centers (PCHC)/ Senior Director, Integrated Behavioral Health, Care Transformation Collaborative - Rhode Island (CTC-RI)
Providence Community Health Centers/Care Transformation Collaborative of Rhode Island

Jennifer M. Etue, LICSW
Manager/Float Provider
Integrated Behavioral Health
Providence Community Health Centers

HEDIS Measurement Year (MY) 2020 First-Year Results and MY 2023 Pipeline

NCQA staff will share HEDIS MY 2020 first-year analysis results and reporting results for domains of measures gaining attention, including 11 measures collected via Electronic Clinical Data Systems and 4 national measures of Long-Term Services and Supports reported by health plans and community-based organizations. Staff will also share what's in the measurement pipeline for HEDIS MY 2023.

Speakers:

Nancy McGee, MS, MBA
Senior Health Care Analyst, Quality Measurement and Research Group
NCQA

Pamela Lighter, MPH
Senior Research Associate, Quality Measurement and Research Group
NCQA

Emily Hubbard, MS
Health Care Analyst, Quality Measurement and Research Group
NCQA

Deidre Washington, PhD
Research Scientist, Quality Measurement and Research Group
NCQA

Daniel Roman
Director, Performance Measurement, Quality Measurement and Research Group
NCQA

Lindsey Roth, MPP
Research Scientist, Quality Measurement and Research Group
NCQA

Fern McCree, MPH
Senior Research Associate, Electronic Measurement Strategy, Quality Measurement and Research Group
NCQA

Evolving HEDIS for Equity: Updates and Future Directions

Health care quality cannot exist without equity. NCQA is committed to building, measuring and promoting equity through all our programs. Empowering HEDIS to speak directly to these goals is a central part of this effort. Join NCQA staff for an overview of our equity measurement strategy and learn more about how we are evolving HEDIS to build toward better transparency and action. This course will include a review of new race and ethnicity stratifications, next steps for a more inclusive HEDIS and a preview of a new measure concept for social needs screening.

Speakers:

Rachel Harrington
Research Scientist
NCQA

Deidre Washington
Research Scientist
NCQA

Building Data and Measurement Practices Across a Network

This course focuses on assessing and establishing robust QI practices across a diverse network of providers to advance the network as a performance-driven organization, with a focus on collaboration around defined behavioral health priority measures, using individualized agency support to drive implementation and practice change. Panelists will describe the evolution of quality improvement efforts, creation of data visualization to support informed decision making and development of common processes based on shared best practices, and will also discuss their efforts to build on this foundation to sustain practices at the agency and network levels.

Speakers:

Lynette Thelen, MBA
Senior Consultant
Center for Collaboration in Community Health at CCSI

David Eckert, LMHC, NCC, CRC
Senior Consultant
Center for Collaboration in Community Health at CCSI

Value-Based Contracting and Specialty Pharmaceuticals: A Synthesis of Implications from Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs)

Drug developers no longer have FDA approval as their top concern. Now payer coverage, access and reimbursements are the primary concern. Payer resistance to pay for treatment failures is growing when individual patient specialty drug therapy costs are $200k-$2+m. Meanwhile, specialty pharmaceuticals are expected to increase to >50% of total US drug expenditure by 2022. How has value-based contracting been impacting this high stakes challenge and what is in store for the future?

Speakers:

Scott J. Kornhauser
SJ Kornhauser Consulting

Jordana Baron, MBA, MPH
Product Development Manager
NCQA

NCQA Digital Quality Primer

Digital quality means many things to many people, but what do we at NCQA mean when we say digital quality? We want a digital quality framework that cuts waste and burden in quality reporting. We want it to foster measurement across levels of the health care system. We want it to accurately pinpoint the factors that lead to high-value care. And we want all of this to “set the table” for a learning health system that consistently provides timely data for more immediate action to improve care. Join NCQA for a digital quality primer that lays the groundwork for understanding the terms, methods, strategies and end-to-end process of the value chain surrounding digital quality guidelines, reporting solutions, performance solutions and more. This course also explores common misperceptions about digital quality and what organizations should be doing now to prepare for, accelerate and implement digital quality measurement.

Speakers:

Anne Marie Smith, MHA
AVP, Performance Measurement
NCQA

The Policy Roundtable: Advancing the Move to Digital Measurement

This year, CMS signaled its plan for all quality measurement used across the agency to be fully digital by 2025. For several years, NCQA has worked with stakeholders to prepare them for the next generation of quality measurement. In this course, NCQA, policymakers and leading voices in health care reform will provide an overview of the federal policies supporting the move to digital measurement and discuss implications of a more digitally enabled health care system.

Speakers:

Eric Musser, MPH
Director, Federal Affairs
NCQA

David K. Kelley, M.D., M.P.A.
Chief Medical Officer
Office of Medical Assistance Programs
Office of Long-Term Services
Pennsylvania Department of Human Services

Maximizing Quality Through Digital Approaches to Guidelines and Measurement

In this course, NCQA and industry thought leaders will discuss challenges and opportunities to develop, adopt and implement digital quality guidelines and measures, as well as implications for advancing digital quality. Learn what industry leaders are already doing in this space and where the future is taking them. This is a great opportunity to benchmark your organization to others in digital quality transformation and learn what has worked well (and what hasn’t) for the trailblazers.

Speakers:

Brad Ryan, MD
Chief Product Officer
NCQA

HEDIS Audit & Data Collection Updates

During this session, NCQA staff will review and discuss Audit and Data Collection updates for HEDIS MY 2021 and provide a glimpse of Data Collection updates to come for MY 2022.

Speakers:

Wendy Talbot, MPH
AVP, Measure Collection & Audit, IT & Information Products
NCQA

Garcene Duckett, MSIS
Assistant Director, Data Collection, IT & Information Products
NCQA

Early Adopters: A New Digital Measurement Experience

Organizations that are beta-testing a new method of consuming HEDIS digital measures will share their motivations for and benefits of moving to the new methodology, along with an overview of their experiences, challenges and early learnings. NCQA will share more about the solution and our vision for how digital measurement will evolve.

Speakers:

Natasha Fisher
AVP, Digital Solutions
NCQA

Mark Oswald
AVP, Digital Solutions Platforms
NCQA

Roadmap to the Future – Leveraging Electronic Clinical Data for Quality Measurement

NCQA is embarking on a mission to enhance quality measurement by enabling technical specifications to use standardized electronic clinical data captured during care delivery and exchanged using standard formats and measure logic. In this course, we discuss the path forward for leveraging electronic clinical data for measurement and care improvement.

Speakers:

Fern McCree, MPH
Senior Research Associate, Electonic Clinical Measurement Strategy
NCQA

Emily Morden, MSW
Director, Electronic Clinical Measurement Strategy
NCQA

Using Natural Language Processing to Achieve HEDIS Year-Round Review

In 2018, UPMC Health Plan set a strategic goal to move to prospective, year-round HEDIS review for hybrid measures, across Medicare, Medicaid and SNP business lines. To support this strategic goal, the UPMC Health Plan Quality team worked with technology innovators at UPMC Enterprises to apply Natural Language Processing to HEDIS hybrid abstraction. Working together, UPMC teams developed a unique technology platform that markedly increases abstractor efficiency in closing gaps. The system is currently in production use at UPMC Health Plan across 12 measures and 3 lines of business. This course discusses the use of natural language processing for HEDIS, as well as lessons learned after introducing NLP into real-world HEDIS workflows.

Speakers:

Lisa Gerdes
Director, Quality Improvement
UPMC Health Plan

Rebecca Jacobson
President
Astrata, Inc.

Digital Solutions for Advancing the Quality Playbook

At the QIS kick-off, we asked, “How do we take the new climate of collaboration and innovation to meet the pressing issues we’ll face over the next few years?”

For the last 6 months, more than 50 speakers over 40 courses have tried to answer that question.

Join us for the closing session, where we bring together quality accelerators in digital solutions to discuss themes from the entire series to identify and amplify solutions for improving health care quality. 

Speakers:

John Glaser, PhD
Executive in Residence at Harvard Medical School
NCQA Board Member

Aashima Gupta
Director
Global Healthcare Strategy and Solutions, Google Cloud

Hilary Hatch, PhD
Chief Clinical Officer
Phreesia