PQA’s Board of Directors represents a diverse group of thought leaders and experts in health care, who understand how medication optimization improves patient outcomes and supports a value-based care system. Their expertise helps PQA advance the safe and appropriate use of medicines.
Jeff Rochon, PharmD, FAPhA, is PQA’s Board Chair for 2026. He is the Executive Director of the Pharmacy Health Information Technology (PHIT) Collaborative. In this Q&A, he reflects on his background, experience and insights on PQA’s work and 20th anniversary.
Tell us about your background and role as executive director of the Pharmacy HIT Collaborative (PHIT).
After completing my Pharm.D. degree at the University of Washington and subsequent internship in a health-system, I completed a community practice residency at Kelley-Ross Pharmacy in Seattle, WA. While practicing in a clinic pharmacy, I took an opportunity to develop an anticoagulation clinic utilizing collaborative drug therapy agreements within the cardiology department. After witnessing the barriers to billing for pharmacist-provided services firsthand, I took a position at the Washington State Pharmacy Association to work on removing barriers that prevent pharmacists from practicing at the top of their training. These experiences deepened my understanding of the importance of quality measures to payers, how clinical services contribute to overall patient outcomes, and how pharmacists’ clinical data was often documented or overlooked due to limitations within our systems.
Ultimately, that led me to the Pharmacy HIT Collaborative, where we focus on improving the interoperable exchange of pharmacy level clinical data and ensuring that information is visible and connected across the broader healthcare technology ecosystem. By doing so, payers and other stakeholders can better understand the true value pharmacists provide to patients, and PQA is an essential part of that equation.
As a pharmacist and former CEO of the Washington State Pharmacy Association, what unique perspectives do you bring to PQA’s work and medication use quality?
In 2015, when the Washington State Pharmacy Association helped pass a law requiring insurers to include pharmacists in their medical provider networks, it became clear that we needed to better understand quality measures and how pharmacists could report the impact of the care they provide. I participated in a statewide core quality measure meeting and quickly recognized that pharmacists had access to valuable data that could help advance several measures where payers and physicians struggled to obtain information, including adherence data and other key measures not captured through medical claims.
From there, it became a priority for me to understand how we could capture pharmacists’ valuable data, align it with PQA’s work, and support emerging payment models focused on value and performance to ensure pharmacists are included in the total health care team provision of care.
PHIT works to advance health IT to better enable pharmacists to help optimize person-centered care. How does PHIT’s engagement with PQA help achieve this goal?
PQA has a tremendously diverse board, with stakeholders from across the healthcare system all focused on quality. That makes PQA a strong North Star for the Pharmacy HIT Collaborative in understanding what data is needed, where it needs to go, and how it should be translated into standardized terminologies to help move quality measures.
From a PQA standpoint, understanding where the organization is headed, what quality measures are being developed, and how pharmacy data is currently received is important. It allows us to improve the translation and normalization of that data so it is visible, usable, and able to demonstrate the role pharmacists play in quality care.
With health plans and provider groups represented around the same table, getting those stakeholders on the same page can help strengthen the role pharmacists have in care delivery moving forward.
PQA is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. What stands out to you as PQA’s key contributions to improving health care quality around the use of medications since its inception?
Twenty years of moving the bar forward for quality measures in the pharmacy profession is something worth celebrating. PQA has continued to build on that progress and keep its foot on the accelerator.
Under Micah Cost’s leadership, we are seeing advancements both internally and externally in how quality measures are developed, assessed, and utilized. It is exciting to see that PQA’s 20th anniversary is not only an opportunity to reflect on the progress made over the past two decades, but also to highlight the momentum and excitement around what is still to come.
When and how did you first become involved in PQA’s work?
I first became involved with PQA in 2018, serving for four years as a board liaison representing APhA and NASPA while working as a state executive at the Washington State Pharmacy Association. That experience gave me the opportunity to see firsthand the strength of PQA’s diverse board, the challenges it tackles, and what it can accomplish because of the unique perspectives around the table.
When I was later asked if I wanted to run for the board, it was a no-brainer. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to serve on the Finance and Nominating Committees, and as treasurer. Seeing the organization’s many moving parts has been impressive, particularly the forward-thinking approach of its board members. I’m excited to be part of PQA’s leadership during its 20th anniversary year and look forward to what the next 20 years will bring.
As PQA board chair, what are your priorities for the organization this year?
While celebrating PQA’s 20th anniversary and ensuring that milestone remains a focal point this year, one of my primary priorities as board chair is to maximize the contributions of everyone around the table. We have worked to strengthen engagement, maintain the energy of the board, and create a safe environment where members feel comfortable expressing their perspectives, even when they may be dissenting. Those are key elements of an effective and productive board.
My second priority is to help increase awareness of the important work taking place at PQA. With changes to PQA’s internal structure, including a new website and additional internal tools, it is important to effectively communicate the organization’s successes. As board chair, I see part of my role as serving as a spokesperson for that work, helping attract more members to the table, and building greater energy and support behind PQA’s efforts.
Our healthcare system is constantly evolving. What do you think the future will bring for PQA and medication use quality?
PQA is well positioned because our healthcare system is currently under significant strain, and there is a great deal of discussion around transitioning CMS payment models toward value-based programs. In that space, quality measures become paramount.
A crucial part of the evolution of our healthcare system and its payment structures will be looking at attribution for the quality of care provided. As we transition away from isolated fee-for-service billing, even if some models still retain a fee-for-service component, we are continuing to see incentives tied to quality. PQA’s understanding of our profession, along with its ability to capture and create quality measures that are essential for demonstrating our value, will be crucial.
From PHIT’s perspective, we see those measures as a North Star to ensure that the data we collect is the right data to demonstrate value and move those measures, so that pharmacists are recognized not only as medication experts but, as care providers.
Quality-based programs are used in many healthcare settings, but the evaluation of quality at the pharmacy level is still emerging. How is PQA helping to advance the role of pharmacies and pharmacists in improving care for patients?
PQA provides clarity around what is important for pharmacists to document at the patient care level. That data can then be captured and translated in a way that demonstrates value. By creating and promoting standards, PQA helps pharmacists understand which aspects of their patient encounters are important to document within their systems so that the information can be shared. If it is not documented, it did not happen.
PQA’s role in clarifying what those endpoints and goals are essential to understanding how pharmacists can receive appropriate recognition for the care they provide. By helping to define what should be measured and documented, PQA supports pharmacies and pharmacists’ ability to demonstrate their contributions to quality and patient care.
What do you like to do when you’re not chairing the PQA board or bringing stakeholders together to advance Pharmacy Health IT?
I’m an avid fan of the outdoors, live music, and sports. Living in Seattle gives us the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Family is important. We have two daughters whom we are very proud of as they transition into their lives outside of our home. It’s exciting to see where their journeys take them. My wife and I are transitioning into being empty nesters and embracing some of the new freedoms that come with that, while still making time to visit our daughters as they are away at college.
PQA’s 20th anniversary celebrations are made possible in part by the generous support of Lilly USA, Merck, Pfizer, PQS by Innovaccer, AdhereHealth, Centene, Elevance Health, Humana, Kroger Health, Outcomes, Inmar, McKesson, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, American Pharmacists Association, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, National Association of Specialty Pharmacy. PQA does not endorse, recommend or favor any product, service or organization that is a sponsor.