COLUMBIA, Mo.—Primaris has been reaffirmed for three more years as the federally-designated Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) for Missouri by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The designation marks the ninth time the federal government has renewed its contract with Primaris, a Columbia-based company. Primaris has held this designation since 1984, when Medicare began the QIO program.
“Primaris will continue tackling patient-safety problems and other challenges in the state healthcare system, including health care transitions, questionable hospital readmissions and surgical infections. We’ll also continue doing our part to help health care providers improve their use of technology, including electronic health records,” said Richard A. Royer, CEO of Primaris.
Since its beginning more than 25 years ago, the QIO program has expanded to proactively address concerns and assist health care professionals with quality improvement projects chosen by Medicare.
As the Missouri QIO, Primaris provides a wide spectrum of services. These include reviewing Medicare-related medical complaints, discharge appeals, hospital admissions and other quality-of-care concerns. In 2010, the company responded to more than 7,000 such issues.
Primaris also organizes targeted campaigns to enhance the care provided by Missouri hospitals, nursing homes and doctors’ offices. Between 2009 and 2011, these campaigns:
- Helped 23 participating nursing homes reduce their rate of patient bed sores by a third,
- Helped to achieve a rate of 98 percent in providing helpful antibiotics to patients in seven Missouri hospitals,
- Reduced restraint usage in participating nursing homes by 80 percent,
- Assisted 37 Missouri physician offices increase their rate of distributing flu and pneumonia shots by an average of 25 percent.
Medicare extends Primaris’ designation as Missouri’s Quality Improvement Organization