Washington Health Alliance to Participate in National Project on Total Cost of Care

SEATTLE, Nov. 30, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Washington Health Alliance (Alliance) announced today that it had been selected by the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement (NRHI) to participate in its pioneering Total Cost of Care project, thanks to funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

Total cost of care represents all health care costs of patients attributed to a primary care provider, as well as the frequency and intensity of services that patients receive. The Total Cost of Care measurement tool used for NRHI's project was developed by HealthPartners®, a large nonprofit integrated health care organization in Minnesota, and has been endorsed by the National Quality Forum (NQF). The Total Cost of Care project aims to develop a standard way to implement cost of care reports to enable apples-to-apples comparisons from one physician to another and across states, with the overall goal of informing strategies to reduce the rising cost of health care.

"We are very pleased to be able to join this important effort to promote price transparency in health care," said Nancy A. Giunto, executive director of the Alliance. "This project dovetails perfectly with our work to address the barriers to price transparency in Washington and prepare for the arrival of the All Payers Claims Database. We are grateful to NHRI and RWJF for the opportunity to be part of this national effort."

The first phase of the Total Cost of Care project started in 2013 when five regional health improvement collaboratives, with leadership from NRHI, came together to report the cost of healthcare at the primary care practice level in their communities. The original five were joined by two additional sites earlier this year.

The Alliance is one of four organizations chosen to participate as development sites for this phase of the project, each will focus on identifying and overcoming barriers to Total Cost of Care reporting. The other sites are The Health Collaborative, The Center for Health Care Data Research at the University of Texas School of Public Health and Wisconsin Health Information Organization.

About the Washington Health Alliance

The Washington Health Alliance is a place where stakeholders work collaboratively to transform Washington state's health care system for the better. The Alliance brings together organizations that share a commitment to drive change in our health care system by offering a forum for critical conversation and aligned efforts by stakeholders: purchasers, providers, health plans, consumers and other health care partners. The Alliance believes strongly in transparency and offers trusted and credible reporting of progress on measures of health care quality and value. The Alliance is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit with more than 185 member organizations. A cornerstone of the Alliance's work is the Community Checkup, a report to the public comparing the performance of medical groups, hospitals and health plans and offering a community-level view on important measures of health care quality (www.wacommunitycheckup.org).

About NRHI
The Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement is a national organization representing regional multi-stakeholder groups working towards achieving the Triple Aim of better health, better care, and reduced costs through continuous improvement. NRHI and all of its members are non-profit organizations, separate from state government, working directly with physicians, hospitals, health plans, and patients using data to improve healthcare. For more information, visit us on the web at www.nrhi.org.

About RWJF
For more than 40 years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked to improve the health and health care of all Americans. We are striving to build a national Culture of Health that will enable all to live longer, healthier lives now and for generations to come. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at www.rwjf.org/twitter or on Facebook at www.rwjf.org/facebook.

Media Contact: 
John Gallagher
Washington Health Alliance
206.454.2957
[email protected]

SOURCE Washington Health Alliance

Related Links

http://wahealthalliance.org