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sures, private payers and other quality improvement programs are not required to follow them.


That’s why TMA continues to advo-


cate that private health plans and other entities employing performance-based programs adhere to evidence-based stan- dards, Dr. Salman says. Dr. Walters acknowledges physicians’ rightful skepticism about the lack of transparency surrounding quality mea- surement over the years. But he says the problem often stems from not the mea- sures themselves, rather how those using them apply them. Part of NQF’s mission is to overcome the transparency problems and encour- age alignment of public- and private- sector performance measurement efforts, he says. And payers, both public and pri- vate, are engaging in more coordinated efforts to incorporate quality measure- ment into payment and performance improvement programs, particularly as more integrated care structures develop. “There is not an insurance company or employer group or health care organiza- tion that is not in these NQF meetings or groups. Everybody is there because everybody recognizes that [improving health care] is a system problem,” Dr. Walters said.


The quality measures out there are not perfect, nor are they the same ones that will exist five years from now, he says. But that’s not an excuse for physi- cians to ignore them. It is a reason for doctors to get — and stay — involved in developing them.


Council recommends “Bridges to Excellence”


The Texas Medical Association’s Council on Health Care Quality is asking the as- sociation’s House of Delegates to adopt Bridges to Excellence (BTE) as a model to help physicians prepare for a value- based care system that will start paying them based on quality measures. BTE is a national pay-for-performance


L AW FIRM PC


April 2013 TEXAS MEDICINE 63


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