Welcome to the 100th edition of Five For Friday!

In 2023, PQA launched a multiphase national medication therapy management (MTM) initiative to address stakeholder needs and advance MTM quality measurement. PQA has identified six objectives that can advance MTM quality and measurement, and the MTM Advisory Group is serving as a forum providing expert feedback on how to approach these.

PQA is now accepting self-nominations for the Diversity in Quality Scholarship. The program provides scholarships for health care professional students to attend the 2025 PQA Annual Meeting, May 19-21, in Tampa, Fla., and participate in the pre-meeting Medication Use Quality Live workshop on May 19.

Join us as we head to the Sunshine State for the 2025 PQA Annual Meeting, May 19-21! Meeting registration and hotel reservations are now open—don’t miss your chance to participate! Make your plans to join us and other quality professionals in Tampa at the primer event for quality medication use.

PQA has published a new report that summarizes the conversations from PQA Convenes: Quality Medication Use in Rare Disease, held on November 7, which brought together health care quality experts, rare disease leaders and individuals with lived experience to discuss what constitutes high-quality rare disease medication use.

PQA has published a new report detailing technical recommendations for advancing health equity with PQA quality measures. Developed by the PQA Health Equity Technical Expert Panel (TEP), it provides key recommendations for PQA measure testing and use in quality programs.

PQA is now is accepting self-nominations for the 2025 PQA Quality Shadowing Program. This program provides individuals from diverse groups the opportunity to observe PQA’s Quality Metrics Expert Panel or the Measure Update Panel.

We are excited to host members next week at the 2024 PQA Leadership Summit and PQA Convenes: Quality Medication Use in Rare Disease at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel in Arlington, Va. This year's summit will focus on PQA's recent and ongoing work to develop standard pharmacy quality measures.

Every patient deserves access to medications that are safe, effective and can help them achieve the best outcomes possible. As our understanding and ability to treat rare disease improves, PQA is eager to shine a light on the aspects of quality medication use that benefit patients and those who care for them.

PQA is developing a set of standard pharmacy performance measures that would be appropriate for pharmacy quality assessment. As part of this work, PQA has launched a proof-of-concept pilot using several PQA pharmacy measure concepts to evaluate the effectiveness of pharmacies in improving adult immunization rates through value-based arrangements (VBA) with payers.

PQA offers a variety of student and professional programs, including experiential rotations, internships and fellowships. Each focuses on providing health care quality experience to diverse individuals from diverse disciplines. PQA is now accepting applications for our student and professional programs for 2025-2026.

There are numerous opportunities for you to be part of the PQA Convening events in the coming months. Registration is also open for the 2024 PQA Leadership Summit and PQA Convenes: Quality Medication Use in Rare Disease. We also invite submissions for breakout session and poster abstract proposals for the 2025 PQA Annual Meeting, which is set to take place May 19-21 in Tampa, Fla.

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 this month, “Advancing Medication Therapy Management Quality Measurement.”.

PQA has received a 2024 Power of Associations Gold Award from the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) for the PQA Diverse Quality Leaders Program. The program helps individuals at various career stages become leaders in health care quality focused on safe, effective and appropriate medication use.

Registration is open for the 2024 PQA Leadership Summit, November 7-8, 2024, in Arlington, Va., and PQA Convenes: Quality Medication Use in Rare Disease, which will take place before the summit on November 7. This year’s summit will focus on pharmacy measure use in value-based arrangements (VBAs) and quality improvement programs.

PQA published the Strategies to Expand Value-Based Pharmacist-Provided Care Action Guide five years ago. The guide was designed to spark conversation and foster collaboration between community pharmacy organizations, pharmacists and health care payers.

Patients receiving specialty medications often have complex, high-cost treatment needs, necessitating close management from care teams, including specialty pharmacies. Recognizing this, specialty pharmacy stakeholders have articulated the need for standardized turnaround time (TAT) measurement and reporting to better understand a key aspect of specialty pharmacy quality.

PQA, in partnership with Inovalon, is evaluating the impact of the Medicare out-of-pocket cost cap for insulin on persistence to basal insulin.

More than 400 leaders from PQA member organizations attended the 2024 PQA Annual Meeting, May 14-16, to network, engage and gain actionable insights.

PQA will host an all-member webinar on Thursday, May 30, from 1:00-1:30 p.m. ET, to discuss one health plan performance measure that is being considered for retirement: Use of Opioids from Multiple Providers in Persons Without Cancer (OMP).