Box 3. Quality Program Resource Guide (Continued)
Healthcare Purchasing Collaboratives
1. National Business Group on Health: www.businessgrouphealth.org/index.cfm
2. Pacific Business Group on Health: www.pbgh.org
3. Integrated Healthcare Association: www.iha.org
Non-profit/Physician Supported Healthcare Quality Improvement Organizations
1. American Medical Association Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement: www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/
physician-resources/ physician-consortium-performance-improvement.page
2. Brookings – Health: www.brookings.edu/research/topics/health
3. National Quality Forum: www.qualityforum.org/Home.aspx
4. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: www.rwjf.org
Accreditation and Certification Bodies
1. American Board of Medical Specialty Societies (ABMS): www.abms.org
2. American Board of Radiology (ABR): www.theabr.org
3. American College of Radiology (ACR): www.acr.org/Quality-Safety/Accreditation
4. Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC): www.intersocietal.org/intersocietal.htm
5. National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA): www.ncqa.org
6. The Joint Commission: www.jointcommission.org/standards_information/standards.aspx
Radiology Resources
1. ACR: www.acr.org/Quality-Safety/Quality-Measurement
2. ACR Quality Conference: www.acr.org/Meetings-Events/QS-2014
3. AHRA: The Association for Medical Imaging Management: www.ahraonline.org
4. Radiological Society of North America (RSNA): www.rsna.org/Quality.aspx
5. Radiology Business Management Association (RBMA): www.rbma.org
Physician Payment Reform
Recent proposed legislation seeks to
improve the current methods of physi-
cian reimbursement under the MPFS by
doing away with the sustainable growth
rate (SGR) and replacing it with an
annual payment adjustment methodol-
ogy based on performance of a single,
budget neutral physician incentive
payment program. Updates or annual
changes to reimbursement levels would
be according to a physician or clinician’s
performance in a prior period through
the “Value Based Payment Program,”
using a composite score across measure
for quality, resource use, and use of elec-
tronic health records (EHRs).
This is the era of quality measurement
in healthcare. It will grow and evolve. Current and upcoming programs will expand,
change, and likely disappear or morph
into variations of themselves. For a comprehensive list of resources, see Box 3.
References
1Institute of Medicine. “To Err is Human:
Building A Safer Health System.” National
Academy of Sciences. 1999.
2Institute of Medicine. “Crossing the Quality
Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st
Century.” National Academy of Sciences. 2001.
Judy Burleson, MHSA, is the senior advisor for quality
metrics at the American College of Radiology and
focuses on the development and implementation of
quality measures and coordination of quality
initiatives. Judy coordinates related activities across
ACR departments and with external organizations
such as the National Quality Forum and the AMA
Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement.
She has participated in numerous measure
development projects and is the primary ACR staff
person overseeing issues, education, and support to
radiologists concerning PQRS and the Physician Value
Modifier programs.
