October 6, 2005
For more information contact:
Tom Williams 510-208-1740
For immediate release
Top Performing Northern and Southern California Physician Organizations
Identified by Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA)
Selection Based on Performance in
Clinical Quality, Patient Satisfaction and use of Information
Technology
OAKLAND,
Calif., Oct. 6 – The Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA) has identified
Northern and Southern California’s top performing physician organizations,
based on their provision of recommended care, patient satisfaction, and
investment in information technologies (IT) that support quality care.
The
top 10 rated physician groups in Northern California are:
·
East Bay Area:
Alta Bates Medical Group; Hill Physicians Medical Group, East Bay; Hill
Physicians Medical Group, Solano; John Muir/Mt. Diablo Health Network.
·
Sacramento:
Sutter Medical Group; Sutter West Medical Group; UC Davis Health System.
·
San Francisco and South Bay Area: Camino Medical Group; Mills-Peninsula Medical Group;
Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Palo Alto Division.
The
top 10 rated physician groups in Southern California are:
·
Los Angeles:
Cedars Sinai Health Associates;; HealthCare Partners Medical Group; Pioneer
Medical Group, Inc.; Cedars Sinai Medical Group; UCLA Medical Group.
·
Orange County: Edinger
Medical Group; Greater Newport Physicians Medical Group
·
San Diego:
Scripps Mercy Medical Group; Sharp Mission Park Medical Group; Sharp
Rees-Stealy Medical Centers.
"These
groups, operating in an organized and integrated model, have distinguished
themselves and raised the bar for other physician practices in California.
By investing in information technologies that improve care and physician
decision-making, they are better able to deliver preventive and chronic care
services to their patients, who are clearly satisfied with the care they are
receiving," said Don Crane, President and CEO of the California Association
of Physician Groups.
The
best performing medical groups were selected from among 225 participating in the
Pay for Performance (P4P) program. (Last July, IHA released its second complete
annual statewide P4P program report covering the performance of over 35,000
physicians in these California physician organizations.)
To
earn selection, a physician group had to demonstrate that it met criteria in
three categories of performance measurement: clinical, patient experience and
the use of information technology. All top performing groups received the
maximum rating for qualifying IT activities: using clinical data to manage
patient populations, and using technology to support physician decision-making
during patient interactions.
“These
physician groups have worked hard to earn this distinction. Linking financial
incentives to improve healthcare measures makes a strong business case for
quality improvement. Blue Cross of California will continue to support the IHA
P4P program," said Michael Belman, MD, Medical Director, Quality
Management, Blue Cross of California.
The
P4P program examines physician group performance according to 14 measures of
clinically recommended preventive care -- such as breast cancer and cholesterol
screening -- and chronic care, for such conditions as asthma and diabetes.
Patient satisfaction is determined through a mailed survey that asks: how well
doctors communicate, the timeliness of care and service, access to specialists,
and overall ratings of the doctor and care experience.
“Several
recent studies, including the Institute of Medicine’s Fostering Rapid Advances in Health, have shown that adoption of IT systems for purposes such
as building patient registries for at-risk or chronically ill patients and using
electronic decision support systems at the point of care can lead to substantial
improvements in the quality of care,” said Tom Williams, executive director of IHA. “This
has proven to be the case in IHA’s P4P program. Medical groups that received
full credit on the IT measures had average clinical scores that were nine
percentage points higher than medical groups that showed no evidence of IT
adoption.”
Medical
groups evaluated by IHA contract with the seven participating P4P health plans:
Aetna, Blue Cross of California, Blue Shield of California, CIGNA Healthcare of
California, Heath Net (California), and PacifiCare (California), and Western
Health Advantage. In 2004, these plans -- covering 6.2 million health plan
enrollees -- paid out combined incentive payments of almost $40 million to
physician groups that reached P4P quality targets. P4P data is collected and
analyzed by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), a Washington
non-profit dedicated to improving health care quality.
The
P4P measures – and others – are used by the Office of the Patient Advocate
to rate California medical groups. The ratings are available at www.opa.ca.gov.