Quality Improvement
Quality improvement is central to achieving high-value care. Learn how we collaborate with all industry stakeholders to identify and bridge measurement gaps and advance patient care.
New Malnutrition Quality Measures Will Lead to Higher Quality, Lower-Cost Care
New quality measures to address malnutrition among hospitalized older adults are now being evaluated by the National Quality Forum (NQF) for endorsement, and by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for inclusion in their Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program.
What Will the Future of Home Health Look Like?
Recently, Avalere partnered with the Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation to better understand how home healthcare is currently being used and how it will be used in the future for older Americans and Americans with disabilities.
Quality Report for Schizophrenia
Avalere recently analyzed the quality measure landscape for schizophrenia.
Quality Report for Rheumatoid Arthritis
Avalere recently analyzed the quality measure landscape for rheumatoid arthritis.
Leading Stakeholders Identify Need for Tools to Manage Post-Acute Network Quality
Data show gaps in care integration across provider settings following hospital discharges.
Avalere Welcomes Senior Healthcare Advisor
Wendy Everett, ScD, joins Avalere as a senior advisor.
Avalere Health Collaborates with the Academy of Malnutrition and Dietetics on Malnutrition Quality Measures Project
Avalere Health has developed a set of malnutrition quality measures in collaboration with the Academy of Malnutrition and Dietetics. Embarking on a journey to improve care to malnourished patients, the collaboration spurred formal multi-stakeholder dialogues to be conducted.
New Analysis Finds Individuals with Major Depressive Disorder Face Multiple Barriers to Optimal Care
Avalere and Mental Health America (MHA) developed a white paper to describe the current state of quality of care for individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD), provide an evidence-based assessment of challenges, and highlight potential opportunities for quality improvement.
What’s on the Horizon for Physician Quality Measurement?
In recognition of National Healthcare Quality Week, we sat down with Avalere expert Nelly Ganesan to discuss upcoming trends and developments for physician quality measurement.
Introducing Avalere’s New Malnutrition Quality Improvement Initiative to Address Gaps and Barriers to Quality Care in Hospitals
Despite evidence demonstrating the benefits of optimal nutrition for healing and recovery, practice variation continues in hospitals for nutrition screening, assessment, diagnosis, and overall treatment and management of malnourished adults ages 65 and older. In response, Avalere launched the Malnutrition Quality Improvement Initiative (MQII) to support the delivery of high-quality care for older adults. The MQII not only aims to support the use of timely best practices for malnutrition care in the hospital setting but may also reduce costs associated with poor patient outcomes.
New Study Finds that Clinical Pathways Are Being Used to Improve Quality and Control Cost but Concerns Remain
A new white paper from Avalere finds wide variation in how organizations develop and use clinical pathways (CPs)-multidisciplinary plans that provide specific guidance on the sequencing of care steps and the timeline of interventions. While CPs have the potential to improve quality and reduce cost, their growing use prompts a range of questions and concerns from patient advocates and healthcare providers. Specifically, Avalere's new work examines the lifecycle of a CP and explores the potential implications of growing use of these tools for payers, providers, and patients.
Improving Obstacles to Quality Patient Care Increases Medication Adherence and Reduces Avoidable Healthcare Spending
Avalere recently partnered with Third Way to estimate the cost savings of increasing medication adherence among Medicare beneficiaries by improving and expanding the current Part D Medication Therapy Management (MTM) program to target and address adherence issues for specific conditions.
Lack of Quality Measures for Cancers and Other Serious Diseases Limits Medicare’s Ability to Pay for Value
A new Avalere assessment of the quality measures landscape shows that many important medical conditions are not fully represented in Medicare pay-for-quality programs, which limits Medicare's ability to pay for value.
Quality Measures and Cancer Care: What You Should Know
Cancer is a burden to patients and the healthcare system. Last year, an estimated 1.6 million new cancer cases were diagnosed in the U.S and the latest figures estimate that 13.4 million people, about 4 percent of the U.S. population, live with cancer in the U.S.1
Webinar: Patient-Reported Outcomes: Using PROs to Measure Performance in New Payment Models
Achieving a vision of patient-centered healthcare requires multi-stakeholder collaboration each step of the way. As national attention on the use of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) grows, significant progress needs to be made to ensure that they are fairly used for accountability purposes in the context of performance-based payment models.
Recap: Pharmacy Quality Alliance’s February 2015 Quality Forum
Avalere Health led the Pharmacy Quality Alliance's February 2015 Quality Forum Lecture entitled: A Look Ahead at 2015.
Lessons Learned from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts’ Alternative Quality Contract as HHS Explores Different Payment Models
As healthcare leaders and policymakers look to curb spending and improve quality, they should examine models like the Alternative Quality Contract (AQC), according to a new paper by Avalere.
ASCO Prepares to Launch Big Data Cancer Quality Initiative
Avalere published an article this week on ASCO's plan to launch CancerLinQ™.
Dialogue Proceedings: Launching the Malnutrition Quality Improvement Initiative
Despite its notable negative impact on patient outcomes and costs of care, malnutrition is an area that has largely remained unaddressed by national programs and initiatives.
Avalere Health and the CMTP Partner to Advance the Adoption of ERPs After Surgery Across the Country
In 2015, Avalere Health and the Center for Medical Technology Policy will work together to develop the Partnership for Enhanced Recovery to promote broader adoption of proven protocols in the surgical space across a number of US hospitals.