For the first time in Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program history, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is restructuring the program to create a new approach in working with providers, families, and caregivers to improve care for beneficiaries. The program had been administered through 53 state-based contracts with 41 organizations. Now, new region-based contracts were awarded to 14 organizations to work across the country on data-driven quality improvement initiatives. These QIOs are known as Quality Innovation Network QIOs (QIN-QIOs). Furthermore, CMS separated out and awarded all beneficiary medical case review activities to two Beneficiary and Family-Centered Care (BFCC) QIO contractors.
FMQAI was acquired by HSAG in 2003, and the two organizations have been working together as two wholly-owned subsidiaries for more than 10 years. Based on the CMS restructuring, HSAG and FMQAI merged into one organization to competitively bid on the QIN-QIO contract and to expand their portfolios of projects and expertise in several other key areas. By combining their talents and resources, HSAG was awarded the largest QIN-QIO contract in the nation for the states of Arizona, California, Florida, and Ohio on July18, 2014. Moreover, on September 3, HSAG was awarded the QIO contract for the U.S. Virgin Islands.
HSAG will maintain its offices in Tampa, but at a new location at 3000 Bayport Drive, Suite 300, Tampa, FL 33607. Management and staff members remain the same in Tampa and will continue their long-standing, successful work in improving the quality of care provided to Medicare beneficiaries as part of the QIN-QIO and dialysis patients as part of its End Stage Renal Disease Networks for Florida (Network 7), Southern California (Network 18), and Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana (Network 13).
