CIGNA Joins Leading Consumer, Employer and Labor Organizations in Push for Physician Performance Measurement Standards
CIGNA HealthCare is joining a group of leading consumer, employer, physician and labor organizations in endorsing a national "Patient Charter" that calls for full transparency of physician performance measures and independent review of health plan physician performance measurement programs.
"Endorsing the Patient Charter is a natural extension of our leadership in providing consumers with health information to help them make decisions about their care," said Jeff Kang, M.D., chief medical officer for CIGNA. "Our support for the Patient Charter also signals our continued commitment to having our processes for measuring physician performance validated by outside, independent organizations."
Leading consumer, labor and employer organizations — including AARP, the National Partnership for Women and Families, AFL-CIO, the Leapfrog Group, Pacific Business Group on Health and the National Business Coalition on Health — endorse the Patient Charter for Physician Performance Measurement, Reporting and Tiering Programs because they share the conviction that publicly reporting physician performance is integral to improving the health and health care of Americans. Health plans that adopt the Patient Charter agree to abide by a set of criteria for physician performance measurement and to have their programs for consumers assessed against these criteria by an independent health care quality standard-setting organization.
"The National Business Coalition on Health applauds CIGNA’s leadership and support of the Patient Charter. Using our common Request for Proposal (RFI) — the eValue8TM tool – CIGNA has consistently achieved high scores on measures related to consumer tools for provider quality and cost/efficiency information," said Andrew Webber, President and CEO of the National Business Coalition on Health, a national association of 60 purchaser-based coalitions.
CIGNA has been an industry leader in efforts to develop a national model for the measurement and public reporting of physician performance. Earlier this year, CIGNA became the first health care plan to agree to submit its physician performance measurement program for independent review through a process established under a 2007 agreement with New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo. The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) will conduct the review in its role as the "Ratings Examiner" under the agreement, and will report its findings to the Attorney General. The review will be completed by the end of May.
NCQA is an independent, not-for-profit national standard-setting organization and is a leader in the efforts to develop effective strategies for communicating health plan information to consumers and other target audiences.
In March of 2007, CIGNA HealthCare became the first national health care plan to earn "Distinction" status across all of its 23 accredited HMO and POS plans for the way it measures the quality of care delivered by network hospitals and physicians. To earn NCQA distinction under the Physician and Hospital Quality standards, health plans must show that they measure the quality and cost of services provided by contracted physicians and hospitals using nationally recognized standards endorsed by outside organizations. Plans must be transparent about the methods they use to measure physician quality, provide physicians with advance information, and give physicians the opportunity to provide additional information. In addition, plans must demonstrate that they use the information in their efforts to improve health care quality and share the data with their customers.
The Criteria for Physician Performance Measurement, Reporting and Tiering Programs are based on the widely-endorsed Guidelines for Measurement of Provider Performance, sponsored by the Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project, a group of leading employer, consumer, and labor organizations working to ensure that all Americans have access to publicly reported health care performance information. The Patient Charter, the Criteria and the Guidelines were all forged with collaborative input from leading consumer, labor and purchaser organizations, as well as leading organizations representing the physician community and health plans.
About CIGNA HealthCare
CIGNA HealthCare, based in Bloomfield, CT, provides medical benefits plans, dental coverage, behavioral health coverage, pharmacy benefits and products and services that integrate and analyze information to support consumer engagement and health advocacy. "CIGNA HealthCare" and the "Tree of Life" logo are registered service marks of CIGNA Intellectual Property, Inc., licensed for use by CIGNA Corporation (NYSE:CI) and its operating subsidiaries, including Connecticut General Life Insurance Company. All products and services are provided exclusively by such operating subsidiaries, and not by CIGNA Corporation. For more information, visit www.cigna.com.
About the Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project
The Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project is an initiative that is improving health care quality and affordability by advancing public reporting of provider performance information so it can be used for improvement, consumer choice, and as part of payment reform. The Project is a collaboration of leading national and local employer, consumer, and labor organizations whose shared vision is for Americans to be able to select hospitals, physicians, and treatments based on nationally standardized measures for clinical quality, consumer experience, equity, and efficiency. The Project is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation along with support from participating organizations. For more information visit our website at http://healthcaredisclosure.org/.