|
|
|
Current Articles
|
Categories
|
Search
|
Syndication
| Friday, August 22, 2008 |
|
Medicare Renews MetaStar’s Quality Improvement Organization Contract for Three Years
By Shanin Pepple @ 12:03 PM :: 95 Views :: Medicare
|
|
NEWS RELEASE
August 22, 2008
CONTACT:
Kay Simmons
Vice President of Communications
(608) 441-8206
ksimmons@metastar.com
Madison, WI - MetaStar, Inc. announces the renewal of their Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that runs the Medicare program. The three-year, $8.82 million contract provides funding for MetaStar to continue work with Wisconsin health care providers to ensure that Wisconsin residents receive appropriate, safe and timely health care.
“MetaStar is pleased to be continuing this important partnership with CMS and Wisconsin health care providers, which furthers our mission of improving health care quality for Wisconsin residents,” said Greg Simmons, president and CEO of MetaStar.
This three-year contract cycle offers the opportunity for MetaStar to work with Wisconsin physicians, nursing homes, and hospitals to improve patient safety, increase preventive care through the use of electronic health records and to protect patients through review of individual complaints and appeals of non-coverage notices.
In the patient safety area the focus will be: Reducing rates of the antibiotic-resistant infection, MRSA; reducing pressure ulcers in nursing homes and hospitals; reducing rates of physical restraints in nursing homes; improving inpatient surgical safety and heart failure treatment; improving drug safety; and providing focused assistance to nursing homes with special improvement opportunities.
MetaStar will work with physician offices to increase their use of electronic health record systems as a means for improving immunization rates for influenza and pneumonia as well as breast cancer and colorectal cancer screenings.
Medicare beneficiaries in Wisconsin will be protected through statutorily mandated review activities such as reviews of the quality of care provided to a patient and appeals of certain provider notices to patients. Quality improvement projects based on the review findings will be implemented by providers as well.
The 9th Statement of Work contract extends from August 1, 2008, through July 31, 2011. Fifty-three contracts were awarded to organizations in each state plus Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and American Trust Territories.
MetaStar has held the Medicare contract in Wisconsin since the program began in 1973. MetaStar, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the healthiest lives possible. MetaStar offers providers the best, most current information in the health care field. We bring providers together to share their wisdom, collaborate, and learn from one another. We offer the general public information on healthy living and how the health care system works. An independent, credible improvement resource, we strive for higher quality and healthier lives. MetaStar’s mission is to effect positive change in the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of health care.
|
|
|
|
|
| Tuesday, November 27, 2007 |
|
MetaStar Receives Excellence in CME Award
By Shanin Pepple @ 2:22 PM :: 256 Views
|
|
NEWS RELEASE
November 20, 2007
CONTACT:
Kay Simmons
Vice President of Communications
(608) 441-8206
ksimmons@metastar.com
Madison, WI – MetaStar, Inc. was awarded the Wisconsin Medical Society Council on Medical Education Award for Excellence in CME on November 8, 2007 at the Wisconsin Medical Society “It’s Essential” conference for providers of continuing medical education. The award is given bi-annually by the Wisconsin Medical Society’s Council on Medical Education to one of the 63 providers of continuing medical education in Wisconsin. This year MetaStar was chosen to receive the award from among providers that include hospitals, specialty societies, county medical societies and other organizations.
MetaStar has been providing CME for thirteen years to physicians and other health care providers who are engaged in improving the quality of Wisconsin’s health care. According to Mary Kay Suitor Scheller, MetaStar’s education coordinator, “the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) has updated their criteria for CME providers and MetaStar is already actively engaged in many of the activities the new criteria define as showing exemplary performance. We look forward to continuing those activities and building on them to assist physicians and other providers in improving healthcare quality.”
MetaStar is a quality improvement organization dedicated to ensuring the healthiest lives possible. MetaStar offers providers the best, most current information in the health care field and brings providers together to share their wisdom, collaborate, and learn from one another. We offer the general public information on healthy living and how the health care system works. An independent, credible improvement resource, we strive for higher quality and healthier lives.
|
|
|
|
|
| Monday, September 10, 2007 |
|
MetaStar Receives Wisconsin Forward Award
By Shanin Pepple @ 10:09 AM :: 1130 Views
|
|
NEWS RELEASE
August 20, 2007
CONTACT:
Kay Simmons
Vice President of Communications
(608) 441-8206
ksimmons@metastar.com
MADISON, WI – MetaStar, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) in Wisconsin, received the Wisconsin Forward Award’s (WFA’s) Mastery Level Recognition. Mastery Level is the second highest of the four Wisconsin Forward Award levels (Excellence, Mastery, Proficiency and Commitment). It recognizes organizations that demonstrate significant maturity in developing and refining processes that are tied to good results in such areas as building a highly skilled workforce, financial and organizational performance, and exceptional customer satisfaction and retention.
MetaStar received Proficiency Level recognition in 2003. “After we received our feedback report from WFA in 2003, we spent a lot of time assessing the recommendations and working on those areas needing improvement. We felt we had made significant progress and decided this year to apply for the Wisconsin Forward Award recognition again in order to get an objective assessment of our progress. We are very pleased that our hard work has made a difference,” said Steve Laking, senior vice president and COO. “We firmly believe that the feedback reports are the most valuable aspect of the award process because they give us the opportunity to see areas in which we still need to make improvements and strengthen our operation,” he added.
 |
| Greg Simmons, president and CEO, MetaStar, receives the Mastery Level award from Joseph Kinsella, Board Chair, Wisconsin Forward Award and Susan Gleason, Deputy Administrator of the Division of Employment and Training, Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development at the August 2 Wisconsin Forward Award reception and awards ceremony |
The Wisconsin Forward Award is Wisconsin’s premier organization for the promotion and recognition of h igh-performance excellence principles and practices by Wisconsin organizations. Wisconsin Forward Award is a public/private partnership modeled on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and mirrors the Baldrige criteria. Begun by former Governor Tommy G. Thompson and the Council for Workforce Investment in 1997, to promote significant achievement in continuous improvement and performance excellence, and in 1999 established as a private, non-profit organization now known as Wisconsin Forward Award, Inc, (WFA, Inc.), the program has helped numerous Wisconsin organizations assess their practices and become stronger, more vital organizations.
“Writing an application for the Wisconsin Forward Award is a time consuming, self-examing process,” acknowledges Greg Simmons, president and CEO, but it is time well spent, not because it results in an award but because it reaffirms our commitment to quality and to the achievement of performance excellence. We are honored to have received this level of recognition but we also know there are plenty of opportunities for us to learn and grow from this experience.”
Visit the Wisconsin Forward Award web site for more information.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|