Evaluation of quality measure attainment with pharmacist-delivered Medicare annual wellness visits

Abstract

Background: Medicare is required to fully cover annual wellness visits (AWVs) to increase access to preventive care. As health care converts to pay for performance models, clinical quality measures have increasing importance. Few studies have investigated the effect of pharmacist-delivered AWVs on clinical quality measure attainment in a rural family medicine (FM) clinic setting.

Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to evaluate attainment of clinical quality measures for pharmacist-delivered AWVs compared with physician-delivered AWVs (usual care). Secondary objectives included assessment of the number and type of drug therapy problems (DTPs) identified by pharmacists during AWVs.

Methods: This single-center retrospective cohort study was conducted within an FM clinic located in southwest Georgia. Two cohorts were created according to the provider of AWVs during 2017: pharmacist or physician-usual care. Data on quality measure eligibility, attainment, and DTPs (for the pharmacist group only) were collected through electronic chart review. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize variables, and chi-square (or Fisher exact where appropriate) tests to compare the proportion of clinical quality measures attained between groups.

Results: Among 334 delivered AWVs, pharmacists performed 68.6%. Approximately 62% of pharmacist and usual care visits were female with mean ages of 72 (SD +/- 9.1) and 62 (SD +/- 13.9) years, respectively. Pharmacist-delivered AWVs had statistically significant greater quality measure attainment in the following categories: advance care planning, osteoporosis cardiovascular screenings, and Tdap vaccinations compared with usual care (P < 0.05). Usual care had statistically significant greater quality measure attainment for diabetes screening. Seventy-five DTPs were identified in the pharmacist group, with the majority being related to adherence (39%).

Conclusion: Pharmacist-delivered AWVs had greater quality measure attainment in several areas than usual care. Furthermore, increased quality measure attainment may assist in meeting benchmarks set by payers to ensure ongoing reimbursement of these services.