Meeting Preview: What to Expect at HQC 2018

The 2018 Health Care Quality Congress (HQC) is a new national meeting by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) that will take place October 5–7 at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas, TX.  (Disclosure: HCQ is produced by HMP Global, the parent company of HMP, the publisher of First Report Managed Care.) The meeting offers exclusive education as well a deeper dive on the updates of NCQA Health Plan Accreditation, quality improvement initiatives, and new HEDIS measures and results. Previously held as a regional series of Health Plan Accreditation and HEDIS meetings, HQC will be the first opportunity—following the data release—to ask questions, learn about the latest developments in Health Plan Accreditation and HEDIS measures directly from NCQA, and expand your ability to offer high-quality, value-based care to your plan members through a new, expanded agenda.  

The conference caters to attendees who manage, implement, and assess the Health Plan Accreditation survey process as well as those professionals gathering, analyzing, or reporting HEDIS data. The Congress is also a chance for health care professionals to network with other experts and peers. 

To help inform and excite attendees, First Report Managed Care has curated an abridged overview of the meeting and the educational sessions that would best serve managed care professionals attending the conference. Please refer to the final program and meeting website (www.healthcarequalitycongress.com) for a complete list of all sessions, workshops, speakers, exhibiting sponsors, and other events.

Education Tracks & Session Types

HQC includes three education tracks for attendees, including Best Practice, Health Plan Accreditation, and HEDIS. 

Additionally, the conference will be divided into a series of sessions, workshops, and industry-supported symposia. Topics for the sessions include: 

• Fragmented health care
• Health plan accreditation
• Home and community care quality
• Holistic care model in mental health
• Improving patient outcomes 
• Medicaid adolescent well care
• Opioid epidemic 
• Population health management
• Reducing acute hospitalization rates in Medicaid
• Special populations 
• Utilization management 

HIGHLIGHTED SESSIONS

Friday, October 5

8:15 AM-9:15 AM

Population Health: The Driving Force in Health Care Quality 

David Nash, MD, MBA, dean of Jefferson College of Population Health at Thomas Jefferson University, will discuss why optimizing population health management will enable your health plan to not only meet but exceed existing accreditation standards. Dr Nash will share insights on the concepts and approaches to managed population health and improving health care quality. Attendees will gain an understanding of the current waste of resources in the system that are equivalent to $1 trillion. Dr Nash will also present a list of tenets of population health as well as describe the meaning of “no outcome, no income.”

10:35 AM-11:35 AM 

Provider-Led Point-of-Care Dispensing of Asthma Supplies and Education Drives Improvements in Asthma Medication Utilization and Reduces Acute Hospitalization Rates in Medicaid

Y. Lily Higgins, MD, MS, MBA, chief market officer of AmeriHealth Caritas at Columbia University of Physician and Surgeons, will present data and describe how a successfully implemented provider-led point-of-care asthma supply dispensing program, combined with on-site provider-led education and home delivery of refills, drove significant reductions in asthma-related acute hospitalization and significant increases in asthma-related preventive visits and asthma controller prescribing rates. Dr Higgins will also discuss why payer-provider partnerships effectively promote asthma-related medication adherence and member education as well as how to apply appropriate measures to monitor successful participant engagement and assess asthma-related health outcomes.

2:15 PM-3:15 PM

Utilization Management: Denials & Appeals

Dayna Bell, MS, MBA, senior director of enterprise quality and accreditation at Health Care Service Corporation, and Catherina Gitimu, MS, senior manager of accreditation policy, product design & support at NCQA, will help attendees identify sufficient documentation for an appeal, define relevant clinical information for a denial decision, determine acceptable methods for notifying practitioners of their right to discuss a denial, and identify required information in denial and appeal notices. Ms Bell and Ms Gitimu will also outline the new utilization management timeliness requirements as well as the must-pass policy. 

Saturday, October 6

8:00 AM-9:00 AM

Fragmented Health Care—How Clinical Integration Can Improve Partnerships and Quality of Care

Patrick Brennan, MD, chief medical officer and senior vice president of the University of Pennsylvania Health System at the Perelman School of Medicine, will outline common themes in value-based care, population health, and managing costs to better integrate a fragmented health care system, including health care delivery itself.  Specifically, Dr Brennan will discuss the importance of aligning payer and practitioner strategies, value-based payment models, and the technology and infrastructure needed to support coordination of care across the continuum, in order to achieve higher quality care that is safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, and patient-focused.

9:10 AM-10:10 AM

Measuring What Matters Most: Improving Patient and Caregiver Outcomes Through a Unique Person-Centered Approach to Care Planning

Katherine Tardiff, MSN, RN, GNP-BC, vice president and director of quality assurance & performance improvement at Seniorlink, Inc, will discuss Seniorlink’s person-centered care planning initiative and review an analysis of the related patient and caregiver outcomes across a large, multistate care management program within the context of NCQA’s proposed MLTSS Person-Driven outcome measures. Attendees will gain a better understanding of the impact a person-centered care planning initiative has on satisfaction outcomes. Ms Tardiff will also discuss lessons learned from implementation of a multi-state, multi-disciplinary care planning initiative.

3:10 PM-4:10 PM 

Home and Community Based Services Quality Measures Project to Reduce Unplanned Hospital Admissions

Debra Scheidt, executive director of United Disabilities Services at West Virginia University, will examine the process utilized to assess certain patient populations and engage patients and other care team members in open communication to design person-centered plans that effectively mitigate risks factors. Ms Scheidt will list steps for tracking and trending quality measures effectively. Attendees will also gain insight on analyzing quality measures against their original hypothesis to determine next steps for success.

Sunday, October 7

7:40 AM-8:40 AM 

Tightening the Beltway: Providers, Health Plans, the Government, and Making Sense of It All

Nathan Bays, JD, managing director at Cain Brothers & Company, LLC, will examine federal policy issues that affect health systems and health plans that are vital to the success of quality improvement. Mr Bays will discuss the current climate in Washington and will explore the latest developments in the policy landscape, and how it interacts with strategic decisions that providers, payers, and other stakeholders will need to make.

8:50 AM-9:50 AM

Population Health Management: New Products and Development 

Natalie Mueller, MPH, product development manager, product design & support at NCQA will discuss how NCQA has been developing new products and initiatives for organizations supporting population health management efforts following the release of the Population Health Management category of standards in 2018 HPA. Attendees will gain a better understanding of these new products that include an Accreditation of Population Health Management Organization and Population Health Management Prevalidation for health IT vendor solutions and software.

SESSION SPOTLIGHT: Mary Barton, MD, MPP, to Discuss Flexible HEDIS

On Friday October 5, 2018, Mary Barton, MD, MPP, vice president of performance measurement at NCQA, will present information on a new HEDIS initiative known as Flexible HEDIS.

“We are going to be showing first-year analysis of all of the new measures introduced in the past year,” Dr Barton told First Report Managed Care. “Organizations will also be presenting results of their quality improvement projects. It will be a great opportunity to learn best practices.” 

Attendees of Dr Barton’s session will gain a better understanding of the new NCQA initiative that is designed to widen the available data sets and taxonomies included in the value sets released with HEDIS and provide guidance about what changes to the measures are permitted for internal quality improvement efforts.

According to Dr Barton, HEDIS measures require retrospective reporting and analysis. They currently use claims to assess things that were done in the prior year. NCQA now wants to transform to a system that is more prospective. 

“Clinicians and patients are documenting care as they experience it and using clinical decision support,” Dr Barton explained. “We think that’s a perfect opportunity for measures to be tied in to the care environment—to remind stakeholders of what needs to be done and when, particularly with regards to preventive care interventions.”