About Health Transparency - Health care transparency, value-driven health care, and public health care report card news

National Quality Forum Endorses Six Measures for Melanoma and Eye Care

Martina Dolan — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 11:56:50 -0500

The National Quality Forum (NQF) has endorsed six measures to improve quality of eye and skin care in the ambulatory setting. The endorsed measures address melanoma and eye care, specifically glaucoma, macular degeneration, and cataracts.

Infection prevention measurements added to Minnesota Hospital Quality Report

Martina Dolan — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 15:02:57 -0500

The Minnesota Hospital Quality Report has included new infection prevention measurements. The report quantifies efforts taken to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia, bloodstream infections, surgical infections and other sources of infections. Data shown were collected from January to June 2009 and the information will be updated quarterly. The infection-reporting effort was called for under a 2007 state law. Surgical site infection rates for total knee replacement will be the next
measures to be launched on the Minnesota Hospital Quality Report, which is expected to be available in the fall of 2010.

New Web site provides health care pricing and procedures information

Martina Dolan — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 14:19:01 -0500

PriceDoc.com, a free Web site looking to provide healthcare consumers with price transparency, has launched its pilot program nationwide, writes Healthcare IT News. This site aims to provide uninsured or underinsured consumers as well as those seeking elective procedures with insight regarding potential healthcare costs from qualified providers.

More than 1,800 providers have become PriceDoc.com subscribers. More than 50,000 medical and dental procedures have been posted on the Web site, along with corresponding prices, and officials say those visiting PriceDoc.com have performed more than 331,000 searches for medical and dental procedures.

In addition to pricing and procedures, PriceDoc.com provides a forum to enable patients to communicate with healthcare providers.

National study names 75 hospitals as 'Best in Value'

Martina Dolan — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 13:54:33 -0500

Research firm - Data Advantage - has released its 2009-2010 Hospital Value Index, which named a group of 75 hospitals as offering the highest quality of care in the U.S. The Index includes data on hospital quality, affordability, efficiency and patient satisfaction. To examine hospital performance, the research firm used publicly-available CMS and AHRQ data for over 4,500 facilities, taking into account patient safety indicators, 30-day mortality scores and readmissions to examine hospital performance.

NY AG sets healthcare reimbursement reform

Martina Dolan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:06:42 -0400

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced the creation of a nationwide database to help set health care reimbursement rates, benefiting patients who use doctors outside their insurers' networks and capping an industrywide probe (Reuters).

A new nonprofit, Fair Health Inc, will develop a database for consumer reimbursement, as well as a website where consumers will be able to compare prices before they choose doctors.

Cuomo has obtained nearly $100 million from insurers such as Aetna Inc, UnitedHealth Group Inc and WellPoint Inc to fund Fair Health. Fair Health will be fully implemented within one year, and developed by five upstate New York universities.

NCQA releases its 2009 State of Health Care Quality Report

Martina Dolan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:09:53 -0400

NCQA's State of Health Care Quality report is produced annually to monitor and report on performance trends over time, track variations in patterns of care and provide recommendations for future quality improvment. Now in its 13th year, the report provides a look at the performance data submitted by more than 800 health plans around the country.

Download the 2009 report:
http://www.ncqa.org/Portals/0/Newsroom/SOHC/SOHC_2009.pdf

NYS Home Health and Hospice Care profile data updated

Martina Dolan — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:50:37 -0400

The latest data update to the New York State Home Health and Hospice Care Profile Web site (homecare.nyhealth.gov), which included updates to quality data, was published today.

Also included in this data update:
* Surveillance data updated to report from March 1, 2005 to March 31, 2009
* Enforcement actions updated through July 2009.
* Updated facilities information including counties served, patient capacities, available services, and branches data.

Home health quality measures reported for time-period April 1, 2008 through March 31, 2009 for all quality measures.

NCQA'S 2009 State of Health Care Quality Report

Martina Dolan — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:49:13 -0400

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) will release 'The State of Health Care Quality: 2009' report on Thursday, October 22, 2009.

Among the questions addressed by this year's report:
- What systemic obstacles to quality must be addressed by national health care reform legislation?
- Why has performance on some key measures of health care quality failed to improve in the past year?
- Why does health care quality continue to vary from region to region?
- How are health care quality and health care spending related?

NJ DHSS releases its 2009 Hospital Performance Report

Martina Dolan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:17:53 -0400

The New Jersey state Department of Health and Senior Services released its sixth annual report on hospital quality - the New Jersey 2009 Hospital Performance Report. The report includes two additional measures for surgical care infection prevention in addition to performance measures for heart attack, pneumonia, and congestive heart failure.The report also includes 12 new measures for patient safety, as required by Senate Bill No. 2471. The new measures show how well hospitals are doing preventing specific medical errors. New Jersey legislation requires public reporting of serious medical errors.

HealthGrades study finds hospital mortality rates improving

Martina Dolan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:30:38 -0400

HealthGrades has released The Twelfth Annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study which examined nearly 40 million Medicare hospitalization records for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008. The study looks at trends in mortality and complication rates and also provides the foundation for HealthGrades’ quality ratings of procedures and diagnoses at each individual hospital.

NCQA's Quality Compass® 2009 Updated With Performance Data From 115 Medicaid Plans

Martina Dolan — Fri, 9 Oct 2009 11:35:45 -0400

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) recently released updated performance data of 115 Medicaid managed care plan submissions to its online Quality Compass product. The data demonstrate the latest clinical quality performance and patient experience for Medicaid health plans. Data for 415 commercial health plans were released in Quality Compass in July.

Quality Compass contains information drawn from audited data reported to NCQA through its Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) as well as the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®). Beginning this year, users can trend Medicaid health plan performance for up to three years. The update also includes new data from measures of clinical and service quality such as lead screening in children and pharmacotherapy management of COPD exacerbation.

Quality Compass data form the basis of several state and national report cards, as well as NCQA's own "State of Health Care Quality" report, which compiles national averages across more than 25 measures of care, and is scheduled for release later this month. Aggregate Medicaid results will be included in the report, but plan-specific data is available only through Quality Compass.

New State Health Care Scorecard: Sharp Differences in Access, Quality, Avoidable Hospitalizations, and Cost Across U.S

Martina Dolan — Thu, 8 Oct 2009 10:56:51 -0400

The cost and quality of health care, as well as access to care and health outcomes, continue to vary widely among states, according to the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System's second state scorecard report released on October 8th. The states that led in the first state scorecard, released in 2007, generally continued to lead, often setting new benchmarks and widening the gap between leading and lagging states.

The report, Aiming Higher: Results from the 2009 State Scorecard on Health System Performance, ranks states on 38 indicators in the areas of access, prevention/treatment quality, avoidable hospital use and costs, healthy lives, and equity. In 2009, Vermont, Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Maine, and New Hampshire lead the nation as top performers on a majority of scorecard indicators.

Health insurance coverage for adults declined in a majority of states since the first state scorecard was released in 2007. The good news is that the majority of states made gains in children's health coverage—a result of federal and state support for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). In addition, national efforts to publicly report performance and improve care have led to dramatic improvements in some measures of quality of care in hospitals and nursing homes, demonstrating the impact federal action and collaborative improvement efforts can have.

NYS Hospital Profile data updated

Martina Dolan — Tue, 6 Oct 2009 09:20:54 -0400

The latest data update to the New York State Hospitals Profile Web site (hospitals.nyhealth.gov), which included updates to quality and inspection data, was published today. Hospital quality measures reported are for time-period Jan 1, 2008, to Dec 31, 2008

Also included in this data update were:

* Hospital surveillance data updated to report citations and complaints from January 1, 2005 through December 31, 2008.
* Number of procedures performed from April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009.
* Hospital and extension clinic and available services information.
* Hospital details, medical school affiliations and system affiliations.
* Maternity Information for calendar year 2008 for upstate New York hospitals
* Adult heart surgery and angioplasty mortality rates from 2004-2006

New Performance Data on WhyNotTheBest.org

Martina Dolan — Mon, 5 Oct 2009 08:36:55 -0400

The most recent quarterly data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have been added to WhyNotTheBest.org, including performance reports on the Hospital Quality Alliance measures, which gauge how often hospitals delivered recommended care processes for the following conditions: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, and surgical care improvement (25 measures in all). In addition, updated performance reports have been added for the 10 measures from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS).

VHI Releases Consumer Guide to OB Services in Virginia

Jaz-Michael King — Sat, 3 Oct 2009 22:53:22 -0400

Richmond, Virginia-Childbirth accounts for one in every four hospital discharges in Virginia. Virginia Health Information-Virginia's source for health care data-has published an updated, free, interactive online guide containing information on the quality and charges for obstetrical services in Virginia. Virginia hospitals and nearly 600 Virginia physicians were consulted and included in the guide. Expectant families can use this guide to learn about prenatal, delivery and postpartum care options, compare and choose health care providers and access helpful resources on making pregnancy and delivery a safe and positive experience.

Obstetrical Services: A Consumer's Guide contains information on everything from hospital facility amenities such as private labor and delivery rooms and birthing balls, staffing levels (including midwives,) pre-and post-delivery services (educational sessions, lactation consultants, materials provided upon discharge) to average hospital charges and cesarean and episiotomy rates by hospital and physician. Interesting general findings from the data include:

- Virginia exceeds the national average on rates of caesarean delivery
- There is great variation (from 2 to 60 percent) among physicians on episiotomy rates
- Hospitals vary in their performance and services offered to parents-to-be

"Virginia Health Information's new consumer guide to obstetrical services is exactly the kind of information consumers need," said National Partnership for Women & Families Vice President Christine Bechtel. "The wealth of detailed information it contains-including data about the delivery room environment and specific services each hospital offers in addition to cesarean delivery rates and physician profile information-is just what consumers need to know when choosing their providers. It is also a shining example of transparency in health care information and represents the type of tools we need to help improve health care delivery and quality. As the nation's debate on health reform continues, it's encouraging that states like Virginia are taking action to help their citizens make such important decisions based on good information."

To access Obstetrical Services: A Consumer's Guide, visit www.vhi.org/ob_guide/ob_intro.asp

Virginia Health Information is the nonprofit organization the Commonwealth of Virginia and businesses go to for consumer and business health information. VHI information also includes hospitals, physicians, nursing facilities and other health care providers. Visit www.vhi.org or call toll free 1-877 VHI-INFO.