Addiction Performance Measures Document Approved by ASAM Board

On November 19, ASAM’s Board of Directors approved the Performance Measures Applicable to the Addiction Specialist Physician. This document was development under the guidance of the Practice Improvement and Performance Measures Action Group (PIPMAG) Performance Expert Panel chaired by Dr. Corey Waller.

PIPMAG was established by ASAM to address the need to define the standards of care for addiction physician specialists and to identify a preliminary set of associated performance measures. In Year 1, ASAM released the “Standards of Care: For the Addiction Specialist” and disseminated it widely. In Year 2, the PIPMAG Performance Expert Panel, consisting of experts from diverse organizations with extensive expertise in addiction treatment performance measurement, research, quality improvement and clinical care, convened three times throughout the year to develop performance measures.

The Performance Measures Applicable to the Addiction Specialist Physician document includes a description of the focus of measurement, prioritization criteria, nine initial measures, and a research agenda based on the gaps found during the performance measures discussions. The nine measures include:

• Percent of patients prescribed medication for alcohol use disorder
• Percent of patients prescribed medication for opioid use disorder
• 7 day follow-up after withdrawal management
• Presence of screening for psychiatric disorder
• Presence of screening for tobacco use disorder
• Primary care visit follow-up
• All cause inpatient, residential readmission
• Substance use disorder diagnosis documentation in addiction treatment
• Psychiatric disorder diagnosis presence

This document bolsters ASAM’s strategic priority of quality improvement. Along with the standards of care, the performance measures support significant improvements in the quality of patient care for the addiction field as well as the overall health care system.

According to Dr. Waller, “this document has been a tremendous effort of the PIPMAG Performance Expert Panel and should position ASAM to lead in the development of performance measures to improve care for patients dealing with addiction.”

ASAM has secured funding for Year 3 to test and specify a subset of the measures in the report.