Medical groups affiliated with Kaiser Permanente in 2006 for the first time participated in the Integrated Healthcare Association's report card rankings, which were released last week, the Sacramento Business Journal reports.
Dr. Mike Ralston, director of quality implementation at Kaiser, said the organization decided to take part in the project because it "is currently for California about the only way that consumers and people in the state get to know any real information about medical groups."
IHA spokesperson Lauren Lempert said information submitted by Kaiser contributed to the "robustness" of the data, adding, "This way, consumers get a picture of how well their doctors are doing."
Kaiser is not participating in IHA's Pay for Performance initiative because Kaiser maintains its own integrated system and physician compensation formula, according to the Business Journal.
IHA ranked the top 20% of medical groups in California using quality criteria such as:
- Chronic disease management;
- Patient satisfaction;
- Preventive care; and
- Use of information technology to improve outcomes.
Seven health plans pay bonuses to the highest-ranked medical groups. The project includes data from about 40,000 physicians in 228 medical groups statewide (Rauber,
Sacramento Business Journal, 10/6).