Cardinal Health, Pharmacy Quality Solutions Help Community Pharmacies Benchmark Their Performance on Medicare Part D Star Measures

SPRINGFIELD, Va., Dec. 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Pharmacy Quality Solutions, Inc. announced today that it will collaborate with Cardinal Health to help 600 community pharmacies track their performance on Medicare Part D Star measures.

Medicare Part D Star measures track key quality care indicators including medication use and compliance, and can be used by health plans to determine which retail pharmacies to include in their networks.

Through this collaboration, 600 of Cardinal Health's community pharmacy customers will utilize Pharmacy Quality Solutions' EQuIPP^™ (Electronic Quality Improvement Platform for Plans and Pharmacies) tool – a national platform for medication-related quality measurement, benchmarking and collaboration among health plans, prescription benefit managers and community pharmacies.

EQuIPP^™ aggregates data from multiple health plans and pharmacies to measure the quality of medication use, including non-adherence, and makes this measurement available to all participants. By serving as a neutral intermediary for quality measurement and benchmarking, EQuIPP^™ enables pharmacies and health plans to focus on improving the quality and safety of medication use.

"Community pharmacies play an integral role in helping patients manage their overall health, particularly when it comes to medication use and adherence," said Steve Lawrence, senior vice president of Independent Sales for Cardinal Health. "We're excited to make this innovative tool available to our retail pharmacy customers, because it makes it easy for them to access invaluable information to better understand and constantly improve the level of quality care they provide to their patients."

Lawrence also noted that while the company has invited 600 retail pharmacy customers to be part of this initial collaboration, the company plans to expand access to customers more broadly in 2014.

"We are pleased to be collaborating with Cardinal Health in its efforts to help community pharmacies adapt to the changing healthcare landscape," said David Nau, President of Pharmacy Quality Solutions.  "As Medicare Part D plans attempt to improve the quality of medication utilization for their patients, they are increasingly turning to their pharmacy networks as partners for quality improvement."

About Pharmacy Quality Solutions
Pharmacy Quality Solutions (PQS) is a joint venture of the Pharmacy Quality Alliance and CECity. Its primary service, EQuIPP™, is a performance information management platform that makes unbiased performance data available to health plans and community pharmacy organizations. EQuIPP™ brings standardization to the measurement of the quality of medication use and makes this information accessible and easy to understand. For more information, visit www.pharmacyquality.com or www.EQuIPP.org

Contact:
David Nau
Phone: 859-537-8462
Email

Read more news from Pharmacy Quality Solutions.

SOURCE Pharmacy Quality Solutions, Inc.