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Medicare Part D STAR Rating Changes, Total Therapeutic Management's Action Plan for Health Plans
KENNESAW, Ga. --(Business Wire)--
Total Therapeutic Management, Inc. (TTM) hosted its second webinar in
their complimentary webinar series: Reaping the Rewards of Quality
Improvement. This second webinar in the TTM series focused on
Medicare Part D STAR (News - Alert) Ratings Improvement and was presented by nationally
recognized Medicare STARS expert, Mitzi Wasik, Pharm.D, Director of
Medicare Programs at Coventry Healthcare1. The webinar
highlighted the recent changes to the Medicare Part D STAR Ratings
released by CMS on September 9, 2012 and the actions health plans can
take to adjust to these new measures, while addressing new and existing
barriers to achieving quality improvement goals.
The session was moderated by Barry Patel, Pharm.D, President and
Co-Founder of TTM. Dr. Patel noted that the topic was timely because as
quality and outcomes become increasingly quantifiable through programs
such as Medicare STARS, healthcare organizations have to prepare
themselves with the knowledge related to changes and subsequently
implement appropriate member and provider engagement strategies.
Dr. Wasik's keys to implementing strategies for STAR ratings improvement:
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Apply a "top-down" team approach.
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Dr. Wasik explained success is most often experienced when careful
coordinated planning includes objectives and commitment from the
health plan (top), down to engagement and education of the provider
and the patient.
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Understand, engage and educate your team.
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Understand the providers' practice environment. For example:
providers are inundated with plan provided outreach, such as fax
campaigns and letters, which often don't get into the right hands.
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Understand your beneficiaries - they are not all created equal. A
65-year-old does not have the same needs or patterns as a
75-year-old that has been regularly using the system.
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Engage providers with useful and relevant information to understand
their performance gaps. Health plans using Acumen data alone will
not fully understand their performance gaps - by the time the health
plan views their Acumen data, it is at least a month old if not more.
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Educate your team. Thoughtful education of providers reinforcing the
quality improvement objectives will complete the "top down approach"
and achieve better outcomes for the patient, resulting in STAR
ratings improvement.
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Embrace the challenge.
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"Triple-weighted measures are making a significant impact when we
are looking at our Quality Bonus Payments (QBP) so extra resources
are required to move the needle," says Dr. Wasik. "Be prepared to
invest in resources, time and energy."
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TTM offers data-driven provider outreach services to some of the
nation's largest health plans and continues to work with Medicare
Advantage Health Plans to determine where provider outreach may boost
their Star Ratings. TTM will continue its quarterly "Reaping the Rewards
in Quality Improvement" series with the next session to be held in
January. More information is at www.rxttm.com.
About TTM
TTM (Total Therapeutic Management, Inc.) is a unique healthcare provider
focused, Quality Improvement Company that provides outcomes research and
clinician engagement services for some of the nation's largest
healthcare organizations, including the Federal Government. Today, TTM
maintains two very unique core competencies within the Healthcare
Services Industry: Abstraction and aggregation of medical chart data to
support outcomes research and quality improvement projects; A unique
ability to engage physicians for one-on-one educational outreach,
helping health care organization clients realize their quality
improvement goals. TTM has successfully implemented projects in various
disease states with over 130 managed care plans and 50,000 physician
offices nationwide. Since 1995, TTM is the company healthcare
organizations have relied on to improve quality through its core mission
of better information…better outcomes. For more information, visit www.rxttm.com.
1 Dr. Mitzi Wasik spoke only on her personal opinion and was
not speaking on behalf of Coventry Healthcare.
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