NCQA Quality Awards

Every year, the NCQA hosts a major event in Washington D.C. called the Quality Awards Dinner. Typically, the NCQA gives out multiple awards to deserving politicians, providers, and others, who have contributed to the quality agenda at the national level. This year, the dinner was held on Wednesday night March 18th and I attended along with one of my key new faculty members, Dr Susan DesHarnais---she directs our Masters Degree Program in Quality and Safety. The attendees at the dinner, numbering nearly 500, come from all across our industry. I recognized key policy persons from many of the biggest managed care plans in the country, vendors who service the industry and of course, the phamrmaceutical companies too. I was lucky enough to sit at the MedAssurant table, a key firm involved in processing data from managed care companies and helping them to turn that data into useful information to measure and improve quality. For me, the highlight of the evening was the brief talk by Dr Peter Orszag, director of the OMB and a key player in health reform. He reiterated the Obama Administration key message ---create an agenda for Comparative Effectiveness Research, change provider incentives,promote health IT and finally, invest more in prevention and wellness----that sure all sounds good to me!! I am more convinced than ever that our new Jefferson School of Population Health could not have come along at a better, or more challenging time!! Kudos to NCQA on a great event and for their ongoing work in our field. Hope I see you there next year, DAVID NASH