California P4P Results Indicate IT-Quality Link

Dolores Yanagihara, Program Development Manager, Pay for Performance, Integrated Healthcare Association, Oakland, CA, presents the quality improvement results from the second full year of the program that provides common physician incentives across 7 major health plans. The data shows gains in each of the evidence-based measures used to assess the performance of over 35,000 physicians in 225 medical groups: better care for more than 6.2 million commercial HMO enrollees. The medical groups who received full credit on the IT measures had average clinical scores that were nine percentage points higher than medical groups who showed no evidence of IT adoption. “IHA’s pay-for-performance program demonstrates that health IT adoption leads to better performance. Its promotion of health IT is a model for others to follow,” said David Brailer, M.D., Ph.D., National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.