The California Association of Physician Groups (CAPG) kicked off their annual healthcare conference today in Palm Desert, CA, with release of the organization's fifth annual Standards of Excellence member survey results and a resolution given by the office of Assemblymember Richard Pan, M.D., recognizing the contributions by the state's physician groups to improving healthcare.

More than 1,500 physicians, healthcare professionals and health plan executives are convening at the three-day conference to discuss some of California's most pressing healthcare issues including the legal and practical implications of implementing healthcare reform, best practices in reducing costs and improving quality, and strategies for increasing coordination among physicians, hospitals and ancillary providers to achieve Accountable Care Organization status.

"California's physician groups have an enormous amount of experience and knowledge about what contributes to a better system of caring for patients and what doesn't," said Donald Crane, President and CEO of CAPG. "This year's conference is an opportunity to share best practices among California's healthcare leaders as well as to help inform federal policy makers on what we've done right to achieve per capita healthcare costs and hospital utilization rates that are much lower than the national average," said Crane.

The Standards of Excellence survey is the first known voluntary large scale, critical self-assessment for medical groups in the United States. According to CAPG's Medical Director, Wells Shoemaker, M.D., "The survey is a blue print for what an Accountable Care Organization will need to offer in order to achieve the triple goals of better technical quality, responsive patient experience, and affordability. Importantly, this year's survey featured more stringent documentation requirements, increased transparency and third-party validation of the scoring."

"CAPG developed the Standards of Excellence survey to annually assess and publicly report the key features and capabilities of coordinated, accountable healthcare organizations - which are now the fundamentals of healthcare reform - to bring value in both quality and affordability to individual patients and large populations," said Dr. Shoemaker. "We started this five years ago because we knew the requirements for high-value healthcare and we're satisfied to see national health reform is catching up. The significance of this survey is that it provides anyone involved with healthcare, whether it is purchasers, providers or government and regulatory agencies, with an evaluation of how well-equipped physician groups are to provide high-value care."

Initiated this year was review of a sample of survey responses and scoring documentation by the Health Services Advisory Group, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for California. The survey analyzes physician group infrastructure capabilities in four areas, each considered central to providing quality, consistency, responsiveness, and affordability for CAPG's estimated 12 million HMO patients and approximately 6 million PPO patients. Survey results can be found here.

The four key survey elements include:

- Care Management Practices - inpatient and outpatient systems to support physicians and patients to achieve reliability, safety, and affordability.

- Health Information Technology - electronic registries to support chronic care, preventive care, professional communication, and advanced electronic record systems.

- Accountability and Transparency - participation in measuring and public reporting, including compliance with stringent fiscal responsibility regulations of the State of California.

- Patient Centered Care - features to accommodate individualized patient needs and preferences, embracing a responsible role in a culturally diverse community.

The 2011 survey results revealed the following:

- 76 medical groups caring for more than 11 million Californians participated in the voluntary survey.

- 25 organizations - caring for a population of almost 10 million people - qualified for the "Elite" category, meaning they surpassed a stiff, peer-defined threshold in all four categories.

- 5 organizations qualified for "Exemplary" performance, meaning they surpassed the threshold in three of the four categories.

CAPG and its members were further recognized by an Assembly Resolution from Assemblymember Richard Pan, M.D. "The California Association of Physician Groups and its members have been among those leading the charge to modernize how we care for people so that limited resources are used to prevent illness and invest in technology that enhances quality and efficiency and where we see an end to the fragmented medical delivery system," said Assemblymember Pan. "I commend CAPG for its important work to improve healthcare quality and the health status of Californians."

About the Standards of Excellence Survey

CAPG conducts its Standards of Excellence survey annually among its 150 member physician groups to gain an understanding of their "infrastructure" and to offer metrics to measure progress in clinical quality, affordability, access, technology, public accountability, and individual responsiveness to their patients. In 2011, a fifth area, Fiscal and Administrative Capability, was tested (scores not reported) to monitor the complex infrastructure needed to manage multiple revenue streams, create novel payment methodologies, maintain intricate network relationships, and handle intricate contractual relationships that are all pertinent to the challenge of creating Accountable Care Organizations nationwide.

Source:
California Association of Physician Groups (CAPG)