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News Release
February
24, 2003
Contact: Ed Mendoza, OPA
(916) 324-6407
Beau
Carter, IHA
(925) 746-5100
Sacramento, California
– The State of California and the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA) today announced that they’ve formed a partnership to produce a scorecard rating medical groups. The scorecard will report on all groups in the state, beginning next year.
“This joint effort aims to create one robust report on physician group performance, rather than duplicate our efforts,” said Secretary Maria Contreras-Sweet, State Secretary for Business Regulation. “Multiple scorecards and those with conflicting results can be confusing to consumers.”
“This is a very exciting public-private partnership effort” according to Tom Davies, an IHA steering committee member and also a member of the state’s Advisory Committee on Managed Health Care. “Employers want consumers to have access to and use quality information in making decisions.”
By combining their efforts, the State Office of Patient Advocate (OPA) and IHA expect to reach a wider number of medical groups and individual consumers. The IHA will produce a physician group scorecard under the auspices of the Pay for Performance (P4P) initiative. This program provides financial reward to medical groups based on performance. In 2002, OPA produced a scorecard on 80 of the largest medical groups in California in conjunction with the Pacific Business Group on Health, and the report card was available in over 300 Walgreen’s and 300 libraries throughout the state.
“The joint work assures that important information will get into the hands of consumers,” said IHA Executive Director Beau Carter.
In California’s delegated model, the selection of a medical group and physician is a key decision for consumers. Roughly half of California’s 18 million HMO enrollees may not have a choice of a health plan because their employer offers only one HMO, but they can choose their doctor and medical group.
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The Office of the Patient Advocate (www.opa.ca.gov) is an independent office under the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency. Established by Governor Gray Davis in July 2000 as part of the nation’s most comprehensive HMO reform, the office is responsible for informing and educating consumers about their rights and responsibilities as HMO enrollees. For more information, call toll free at 1-866-HMO-8900.
The Integrated Healthcare Association (www.iha.org) is a statewide leadership group of California health plans, physician groups and health care systems, plus academic consumer, purchaser and pharmaceutical representatives. IHA is committed to policy development, special projects, and public dialogue on health care policy and the evolution of managed care. IHA is funded through member dues and grants.
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