For the second year in a row, the UCLA Medical Group has been
named one of the top 10 physician organizations in Southern
California by the Integrated Healthcare Association.
IHA officials said the awards, which are based on health care
groups’ scores in three care-quality criteria, improve health
care statewide.
The UCLA Medical Group participates in the IHA’s
pay-for-performance program, which is intended to provide
physicians with financial awards if they meet certain quality
benchmarks, said IHA spokeswoman Lauren Lempert.
“The goal of the program is to create a compelling set of
incentives to drive improvement in clinical quality,” she
said.
Samuel Skootsky, director of the UCLA Medical Group, said UCLA
students would also directly benefit from the distinction because
the UCLA Medical Group oversees student health services offered
through the Arthur Ashe Stuent Health and Wellness Center.
According to a statement released by the IHA last July, after
last year’s rankings had been released, physician groups
participating in the pay-for-performance program reported jumps in
the number of patients screened for some serious diseases.
They screened roughly 60,000 more women for cervical cancer in
2005 than 2004.
They also immunized about 30,000 more children and tested 12,000
more people for diabetes.
“This means that across California … chronic conditions
are more likely to be managed,” said Tom Williams, executive
director of IHA. “These physician groups have distinguished
themselves by providing care for their patients at the highest
levels compared to their peers on comparable benchmarks.”
Skootsky said UCLA also uses the program partly to evaluate its
own progress.
“These types of performance awards are becoming standard
practice in health care,” he said. “We are always
looking at ways to improve patient care and ways to measure and
monitor our performance. When this program was offered we thought
it was a good opportunity.”
Though the IHA itself does not present money to the medical
groups, it does rate groups based on quality criteria. If groups
meet a certain standard, the larger health maintenance
organizations that govern them then decide how much to award each
group.
Groups received separate scores for clinical quality, patient
experience and adoption of information technology, Lempert
said.
The UCLA Medical Group, which is affiliated with the Blue Cross
HMO, ranked in the top 20 percent of physicians organizations in
Southern California, according to the IHA.
Lempert said because the IHA’s list of top medical groups
is made available to the public, it prompts physicians to strive
for better care quality.
“Physicians really notice. They want to be on that
list,” she said. “It’s great for patients.
It’s improving health care quality.”
Though this year’s payouts from HMOs have not yet been
announced, Lempert said last year’s awards totaled about $50
million.
Skootsky said the rankings themselves would be valuable to the
UCLA Medical Group.
“This distinction recognizes our work in providing
excellent basic preventive and chronic care as well. It enhances
our reputation as an institution,” he said.