Kaiser Permanente Hawaii Receives Pharmacy Quality Award

File photo.

By Sonia Isotov

Kaiser Permanente Hawaii recently received the inaugural Pharmacy Quality Alliance’s Quality Award which recognized Kaiser Permanente’s achievement of a 5-star rating, according to publicly available quality data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

With the CMS’s Star Rating Program, the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PDQ) measures medication safety in two categories: high risk medications and diabetes treatment. The Kaiser plans achieved a five star rating on medication safety measures in these two categories. Kaiser also achieved a 4-star rating as a health plan.

“This award is truly unique because it uses publicly available quality data from CMS,” said Laura Cranston

, Pharmacy Quality Alliance’s executive director. “Therefore, plans don’t have to be nominated, they simply have to perform exceptionally well on transparent measures of medication safety. Selections for this inaugural award were made by examining the performance criteria of hundreds of Medicare contracts.”

“We are honored to be one of only a few plans in the country to be recognized by Pharmacy Quality Alliance, for medication and patient safety,” said Barbara Kashiwabara, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii director of Pharmaceutical Services. “Our patient-centered model promotes collaboration and improves communication between the care team and the member, resulting in better care outcomes, increased patient satisfaction, and increased patient safety.”

Nationally, only two other health plans received this PQA recognition, including Kaiser Permanente Colorado.