Indiana Health Information Exchange’s Quality Program Reaches 1,500 Physicians, Over 1 Million Patients
Indianapolis, Indiana, March 2, 2011—The Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE) announced that its Quality Health First Program has enrolled over 1,500 physicians in over 50 communities throughout Indiana to help improve screenings rates and to support the management of medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, asthma and breast cancer for nearly one million Hoosiers.
Patients needing these and other interventions are flagged in reports to their primary care physician, enabling the physician to make the best care decisions possible before, during and after patient visits. Participation is open to any primary care practice in Indiana, regardless of its size or number of physicians, and is not restrictive to practices that do not use electronic health records.
The reports are based on over three billion pieces of clinical information, along with claims information, to provide the most up-to-date, robust and relevant information available. The program allows physicians to review and verify the data, and to reconcile missing or inaccurate data.
“The reports we receive help us to find patients who are not getting regular care for either routine services or chronic disease management,” said Dr. Louis Winternheimer, medical director of the Raphael Health Center in Indianapolis. “As a result, we mail reminders or make phone contact with the patients based on the reports.”
Providing early interventions and consistent follow-up care to those patients with chronic diseases is a critical step to capping healthcare costs. As such, the program provides a structure for health plans to reimburse physicians based on improvements in patient outcomes.
For care provided in 2009, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Indiana awarded bonus payments totaling $3.4 million to participating primary care physicians in Indiana based on improvements in overall patient health. The amount of bonus payments from Anthem for care delivered by participating physicians in 2010 is expected to exceed that amount.
In addition to Anthem, United Healthcare and Unified Group Services, Medicare and Medicaid all participate in the program.
“Our practice elected to participate in the Quality Health First Program because of the standardized measurement of medical quality and outcomes across health plans,” said Sandy DeWeese, RN and Administrator of Southern Indiana Pediatrics in Bloomington, Ind. “This comprehensive program gives us a practice-wide view of care needed for all of our patients, rather than just a segment of our patient population.”
The program can help providers meet certain Meaningful Use criteria outlined in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act by linking the use of health information technology to achieving measurable outcomes in patient engagement, care coordination and population health. It is also the foundation for the $16 million Central Indiana Beacon Community, a cooperative agreement program funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act designed to support communities at the cutting edge of secure health information exchange attain a new level of healthcare quality and efficiency.
About the Indiana Health Information Exchange
Indiana Health Information Exchange, Inc. (IHIE) is a non-profit corporation formed in 2004 by the Regenstrief Institute, private hospitals, local and state health departments, BioCrossroads and other prominent organizations in Indiana. IHIE is the nation’s largest health information exchange organization, delivering clinical information to providers securely and efficiently, along with providing information to assist providers as they care for patients needing preventive care and management of chronic diseases. The IHIE network includes 19,000 physicians and over 80 hospitals and other healthcare organizations. An IHIE-led collaboration (Central Indiana Beacon Community) is one of 17 national cooperatives to help advance healthcare quality and efficiency. This collaboration will help communities in Indiana identify opportunities to measurably improve patient care. To learn more, visit www.ihie.org.