Illinois Foundation for Quality Health Care
The Illinois Foundation for Quality Health Care (IFQHC), a wholly owned subsidiary of IFMC, is the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) federally designated Quality Improvement Organization for Illinois. Located in Oak Brook, IFQHC works with thousands of health care professionals, organizations and more than 1.7 million Medicare beneficiaries in the state. IFQHC has also been awarded other CMS quality improvement projects.
IFQHC has pulled together teams of health care professionals, quality improvement specialists, statisticians, communicators and others to create new and better ways to:
- Capture, manage and report on quality improvement data
- Develop and disseminate quality improvement programs, tools and general information
- Provide oversight for health care quality concerns
- Be an agent for change management
IFQHC has been the Illinois QIO for over six years. In this role, the team serves the state’s Medicare consumers and health care community by facilitating transformational change within the care system. In this effort, we are guided by the principles outlines by the Institute of Medicine: Care will be safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient and equitable to all beneficiaries that Medicare serves.
QIOs collaborate with consumers and health care providers to foster an environment in which every person receives the right care every time. IFQHC’s quality improvement activities are guided by CMS) Health Care Quality Improvement Program (HCQIP) created in 1992.
With HCQIP as a guide, IFQHC works to:
- Assist health care providers in hospitals, physician offices, nursing homes and home health agencies with their quality improvement efforts regarding the processes and outcomes of medical care for Medicare beneficiaries.
- Assist physician offices with the adoption and implementation of electronic health record (EHR) technology.
- Educate Medicare beneficiaries on the importance of preventive health care and their health care rights and responsibilities.
- Promote publicly reported quality of care information about Illinois health care providers in order to educate beneficiaries and spur quality improvement efforts.
- Respond to Medicare beneficiaries’ concerns about the quality of care they receive, and conduct case reviews to determine if services provided are medically necessary, are appropriate, and meet professionally recognized standards of care.
CMS Special Projects
IFQHC has been awarded several special projects by CMS and other state entities.
For more information on the Illinois Foundation for Quality Health Care, visit www.ifqhc.org or call 1-800-386-6431.