Pharmacy Quality Alliance endorses diabetes health plan performance measures

The Pharmacy Quality Alliance recently announced its endorsement of two diabetes-focused health plan performance measures.

First up is the Use of Medications to Prevent Major Cardiovascular Events in Persons with Diabetes measure, which evaluates the percentage of individuals over the age of 18 years old who have Type 2 diabetes and an established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and were prescribed a GLP-1 receptor agonist or SGLT-2 inhibitor with proven cardiovascular benefit during the measurement year.

The second measure is the Persistence to Basal Insulin, which evaluates the percentage of those over the age of 18 years old who were on treatment persistent to basal insulin during the measurement year.

“With approximately 10% of the U.S. population having diabetes, we are pleased to add these measures to our portfolio, providing additional tools for health plans to identify opportunities for medication therapy with proven cardiovascular benefit,” said Lisa Hines, PharmD, PQA vice president of performance measurement. “Additionally, Persistence to Basal Insulin is a unique measure that fills an important diabetes medication quality measurement gap.