CMS Names Members of Quality Improvement Network

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has named 58 healthcare organizations as members of its Network of Quality Improvement and Innovation Contractors (NQIIC). Each NQIIC awardee may serve as quality improvement experts or facilitators/change agents for healthcare transformation on CMS projects over the next five years.

The specific areas of focus may include, but are not limited to the following:

• Behavioral Health, including a focus on Opioid Use Reduction
 • Patient Safety/Harm Reduction
 • Care Coordination
 • Nursing Homes/Long-Term Care
 • Chronic Disease Self-Management
 • Clinical Practices Redesign and Transition to Alternative Payment Models
 • Provider Burden Reduction
 • Public Health: obesity, cardiac health, reduction in smoking, diabetes, kidney health

Services supported by the NQIIC awardees may include:

• Provide direct technical assistance in specific areas of healthcare quality improvement (e.g., patient safety, opioid misuse, nursing home quality, etc.)

• Seek and gain commitments from patients, providers, and stakeholders to achieve aims

• Use a human-centered design that involves teaming with patient and family members to improve healthcare processes and outcomes

• Focus on helping providers and healthcare organizations achieve quantitative results for improved outcomes, lower costs, better care, less provider burden, greater transparency, and more

• Support a diverse array of organizations and populations, including: rural providers, vulnerable beneficiaries, clinical practices, hospitals, nursing homes, dialysis facilities, and more

• Support providers in efficient use of health IT and interoperability

• Serve as backbone organizations to form and engage Community Coalitions

• Convene and support Learning and Action Networks (LANs)

Here is a list of the 58 organizations in the network of contractors:

·      Alliant Health Solutions

·       Altarum Institute

·       American College of Radiology

·       C&T Solutions

·       Caravan Health

·       Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence

·       Carolinas HealthCare System

·       Community Health Center Association of Connecticut

·       Consortium for Southeastern Hypertension Control

·       Convergence Health Consulting

·       Deloitte Consulting

·       Dignity Health

·       ECRI Institute

·       Essential Hospitals

·       Great Plains Quality Improvement Network

·       Greater New York Hospital Foundation

·       HCD International

·       Health Quality Innovators

·       Health Research & Educational Trust

·       Health Services Advisory Group

·       Healthcare Association of New York State

·       Healthcentric Advisors

·       Iowa Healthcare Collaborative

·       Island Peer Review Organization

·       Kansas Foundation for Medical Care

·       A. Care Health Plan

·       LifePoint Health

·       Mathematica Policy Research

·       Maximus’ (NYSE: MMS) federal business

·       Missouri Hospital Association

·       Mountain-Pacific Quality Health

·       National Nurse-Led Care Consortium

·       Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement

·       New Jersey Innovation Institute

·       New York e-Health Collaborative

·       Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality

·       Pacific Business Group on Health

·       Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation

·       Premier Healthcare Solutions

·       Primary Care Development

·       Q3 Health Innnovation Partners

·       Qlarant Quality Solutions

·       QPMSI

·       Qsource

·       Qualidigm

·       Qualis-Healthinsight

·       Quality Insights

·       RAZR Solutions

·       RELI Group

·       Rhode Island Quality Institute

·       Softdev

·       Superior Health Quality Alliance

·       Telligen

·       TMF Health Quality Institute

·       Trustees of Indiana University

·       University of Massachusetts Medical School

·       Vizient

·       Washington State Hospital Association