Telligen Medical Director, Dr. Jason Kessler, was recently invited to serve on the Rural Health Expert Panel for the Quality and Cost Efficiency Measurement Efforts Directed at Small-Practice and Low-Volume Providers Project. The goal of the project is to examine performance measurement issues for rural small-practice and low-volume providers, particularly in the context of payment incentive programs.
“Iowa is largely a rural state and I do think there are differences in the ways we can measure quality in smaller and rural practices. I have worked on other studies where data suggests smaller practices may outperform the larger ones on many quality metrics. Questions do arise though; How can you get truly meaningful data when the denominators get low? How does quality change where resources are low? I hope to help answer some of the questions being on the panel as well as bring some of Iowa’s experience in rural healthcare to do so.”
In addition to this newest achievement, Dr. Kessler is on the steering committee for the Medicaid Medical Directors Network which includes representatives from over 40 states. This group has conducted a number of multistate studies including:
- Antipsychotic use in children
- Medicaid hospital readmissions
- Perinatal care and early elective deliveries