Quality measures and their importance to allergy/immunology.

With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, it is important for allergy/immunology providers to understand how quality measures and their reporting will affect the practice of medicine. In association with reforms of the health care system, and the transition to value-based reimbursement, there is a greater need for the introduction of clinical quality measures for a number of conditions within the spectrum of allergic and immunologic disorders. A measure is defined as: “the extent, dimensions, quantity, etc., of something, ascertained especially by comparison with a standard.” A key feature of quality measures is defining the “standard,” as well as confirming suitability, reliability, validity, and impact. Increasingly, quality measures are being selected for public reporting initiatives in the context of evidence or guidelines recommendations that demonstrate that adoption of these quality measures will translate into improved patient care outcomes. Quality measures have been an important reporting tool for primary care physicians and various specialties for several years. There are approximately 254 quality measures available for use in the 2015 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) and 1666 measures were finalized across federal quality reporting programs