CMS Announces Quality Innovation Network QIO Contracts – On July 18, CMS announced the award of contracts to fourteen Quality Innovation Network Quality Improvement Organizations (QIN-QIOs) for work on data-driven quality initiatives. The statement said that QIO-QINs will “drive quality by providing technical assistance, convening learning and action networks for sharing best practices, collecting and analyzing data for improvement.” QIN-QIOs will focus on several projects, including efforts to ?reduce readmissions, healthcare associated infections, and medication errors, and to expand the exchange of interoperable health information technology. Changes will be implemented with the beginning of the five year, 11th Statement of Work on August 1, 2014. The CMS press release is available here.