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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Federal agency that administers the Medicare program, contracts with a national network of 53 Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) one in each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. QIOs seek to (1) improve the quality of care that Medicare beneficiaries receive by collaborating with providers to help them meet evidence-based standards of care, (2) protect beneficiaries by responding to and investigating claims and evidence of substandard care, and (3) protect the Medicare Trust Funds by reviewing claims patterns and suspicious cases for the inappropriate use of services or incorrect billing codes. Over the course of a 3-year contract with CMS, QIOs engage providers in quality improvement projects and offer technical assistance across four major health care settings hospitals, home health agencies, nursing homes, and physician offices. For the current 3-year contract period CMS has dedicated $1.265 billion to the program. Recent press coverage and inquiries made by Congress have raised questions regarding the QIO programs effectiveness and whether substantial reforms should be made to the program. As part of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003, the Congress requested that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) conduct an evaluation of the QIO program. The IOM released their report Medicares Quality Improvement Organizations: Maximizing Potential in March 2006. Among the IOMs conclusions was that: Given the lack of consistent and conclusive evidence in scientific literature and the lack of strong findings from the committees analyses, it is not possible to determine definitively the extent of the impact of the QIOs and the national QIO infrastructure on the quality of health care received by beneficiaries. Many confounding factors make it difficult to attribute the results obtained thus far (to QIOs). (IOM, 2006).