Quality Management
IFMC is a leader in innovative solutions impacting health care quality. The company 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
IFMC takes prides in our ability to work together with health care professionals, consumers, industry groups, legislators and others to reach our project goals. Our experience in facilitating quality improvement helps health care organizations, businesses and health care consumers throughout the nation receive better health care. Two business units, IFMC Health Care Quality Programs and the Illinois Foundation for Quality Health Care, drive much of IFMC’s quality management work.
Federally Designated Quality Improvement Organization
IFMC holds the Iowa and Illinois state Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) contracts awarded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). QIOs collaborate with Medicare consumers and each state’s health care community to foster an environment in which every person receives the right care every time.
State of Iowa Medicaid Enterprise
As a major partner in the Iowa Medicaid Enterprise program, IFMC is helping pioneer new roads for Medicaid. IFMC is one of only a few key vendors working with the State of Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) to build an integrated Medicaid Enterprise. The program is designed to transform Iowa Medicaid from a payer of health care claims to a prudent purchaser of health care services. Under this integrated approach, cost efficiencies will be attained not only through management of utilization, claims and revenue, but also through improving quality of care and outcomes.
CMS Special Projects
IFMC maintains an ongoing quality improvement leadership role for CMS through projects including:
- Developing and testing an expanded set of clinical measures for physician offices (Doctors’ Office Quality or DOQ project)
- Providing technical support to national program for public reporting of hospital performance data (Hospital Reporting Program Quality Improvement Organization Support Center or HRP QIOSC)
- Developing and operating a national QIO Continuing Medical Education (CME) program for providers engaged in quality improvement work
- Providing knowledge, technical support and auditing services of DOQ quality of care measures in the Physician Group Practice (PGP) pay-for-performance demonstration project
- Performing national evaluation of accreditation audits for Diabetes Self Management Training (DSMT) providers
- Developing projects to correspond with the public television series, “Remaking of American Medicine”
Other Special Projects
In addition to projects for CMS, IFMC is involved in many other health care quality improvement special projects, including:
- American Medical Association: IFMC provides technical assistance for the development and testing of new clinical performance measures.
- Iowa Department of Insurance: Since 1985, IFMC has performed external review of commercially managed care plans for the Iowa Insurance Division.
- Iowa Society of Thoracic Surgeons: IFMC carries out retrospective audits of the society’s statewide clinical database.
For more information about IFMC’s Quality Management Services, contact us at information@ifmc.org.
You can also visit www.internetifmc.com to learn more about our IFMC Health Care Quality Improvement Programs or www.ifqhc.org to learn more about the Illinois Foundation for Quality Health Care.