Medical Group Results Now Available
The Puget Sound Health Alliance is pleased to announce that the draft results for the second Community Checkup report are now available for review by medical groups. The results are based on claims and encounter data submitted by 16 health plans, self-insured purchasers, and union trusts. The data were submitted to our vendor Milliman, who aggregated the data to calculate measure results. The Alliance then used clinic-supplied information in OneHealthPort to attribute clinicians to the appropriate clinic(s) to create clinic-level results. The second Community Checkup is scheduled for release in November 2008. It will include results for medical groups and clinic locations with 6 or more clinicians (including Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants) in King, Kitsap, Pierce, Snohomish and Thurston counties who met the minimum denominator of 160 patients appropriate to each measure (e.g., for diabetes measures, a clinic must have at least 160 patients diagnosed with diabetes).
Key Dates for Clinic Review
We request that medical groups access and review their draft results according to the following timeline:
Week of 8/11 Medical groups are notified of availability of draft results for review
8/11 - 9/12 Medical groups review draft results and identify any data issues
9/18 Medical groups provide feedback on their draft results to the Alliance on or before Thursday, September 18th
9/18 - 10/10 The Alliance reviews feedback and works with Milliman and the medical group to resolve any data issues
Early Nov '08 The Alliance finalizes the results and releases an advance, detailed version of the Community Checkup report to the medical groups
Mid Nov '08 The Alliance releases a more general version of the Community Checkup report to the public.
About the Results
The results were calculated based on measure specifications developed by Milliman. For detailed information on the specifications see Technical Specifications. For most measures, the data represents care provided to commercial and Medicaid patients between October 2006 and September 2007. The results are presented in three groupings: combined commercial and Medicaid, commercial only and Medicaid only. In the reports shared with medical groups, the results are presented by medical group (referred to as "clinic systems" in the first Community Checkup), by clinic location and for each individual clinician. The public version of the report will include results only for medical groups and clinic locations that have 6 or more clinicians and meet the denominator threshold of 160 patients.
Medical groups should note that changes to one clinic's data could potentially affect the results of another clinic or medical group. For example, if it is determined that Dr. Smith was incorrectly assigned to Clinic A and should actually be assigned to Clinic B, the results for Dr. Smith would move to Clinic B and Clinic A's and Clinic B's results would change accordingly. The Alliance will work with each medical group to notify any clinics whose results are significantly affected by refinements in the data.
Finally, the Alliance is interested in including a benchmark comparison in the final report so that we could identify those clinics that surpass national benchmarks for applicable measures. We will be reviewing potential benchmark sources during clinic results review and will update medical groups on this issue at a later date.
How to Access the Draft Results Reports
QA Managers for each medical group can access the Community Checkup draft results by following these steps:
1. Use the login button at the top of this page to securely access the report site.
2. Enter your OneHealthPort QA Manager username and password. (if you have not yet assigned a QA Manager for your medical group, see Assigning Roles in OneHealthPort).
3. Select from the available reports (see Accessing Community Checkup Draft Results for more detailed instructions).
4. Select your preferred format (e.g. PDF, Excel) and click "export" for ease of review and distribution within your medical group.
How Can I Update My Clinic or Medical Practice Structure?
To help ensure the Community Checkup appropriately reflects your clinic structure:
Update your clinic information in the Northwest NPI Directory. When updating your information, make sure each provider is associated with the correct location where he or she practices.
If your organization has more than one physical location, use this spreadsheet: Clinic Template. Otherwise, it may be easiest for you to manually enter your providers directly in OneHealthPort's Northwest NPI Service.
How to Provide Feedback?
We request that medical groups compile their feedback from all internal sources prior to submitting it to the Alliance on or before Thursday, September 18th. Responses should be directed to:
Sean McCliment
Performance Report Analyst
Puget Sound Health Alliance
2003 Western Avenue, Suite 600
Seattle, WA 98121
sean@pugetsoundhealthalliance.org.
(206) 448.2570 ext. 113
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