Washington Health Alliance's Community Checkup Report Finds Thousands in State Not Receiving Recommended Health Care

SEATTLE, Dec. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Washington state still has a long way to go if it is to achieve excellence in the delivery of health care. That's the key finding of the Washington Health Alliance (Alliance)'s 2018 Community Checkup report, released online today.

The report, which is based on data from the Alliance's All-Payer Claims Database (APCD), compares Washington state's performance to national benchmarks on measures of access, prevention, and underuse of effective care for chronic illness.

"We are still a long way from our goal of achieving results that are at or near the national 90^th percentile performance on important quality measures," says Nancy A. Giunto, executive director of the Alliance. "There is still great variation in performance across regions and health care systems and much more we need to do as a state to ensure people are getting quality, recommended care. But by providing reliable, actionable data all in one place, we are giving employers, health plans, providers and patients with a roadmap for improvement that they can't find anywhere else."     

In the past year, Washington state ranked at or below the national 50^th percentile for more than half of the quality measure results for the commercially insured, achieving 90^th percentile performance on just one measure – eye exams for people with diabetes. For the Medicaid-insured population, Washington state measure results are at or below the national 50^th percentile for more than three-quarters of the measures and none of the quality measures achieved 90^th percentile performance. This means thousands of people across the state are not getting recommended health care.

There were, however, some areas where Washington state improved in comparison to national benchmarks, for example in well-care visits for adolescents in the commercially-insured population and follow-up care for children on ADHD medication for the Medicaid insured population.

The Community Checkup also ranks medical group performance across the state on these measures for commercially-insured and Medicaid-insured individuals. As in years past, there is wide variation of performance among provider practices – some showing as much as a 45 percentage point spread –  indicating opportunities for quality improvement. However, several medical groups have ranked among the top five performers since implementation of the Statewide Common Measure set (2015-2018): Kaiser Permanente Washington, Swedish Medical Group and Virginia Mason Medical Center for commercially-insured and Kaiser Permanente Washington for Medicaid-insured. Additionally, two medical groups have been in the top five for three out of the last four years: The Everett Clinic for commercially-insured medical groups and UW Medicine-Valley Medical Group for Medicaid-insured.  

The Community Checkup report draws upon a database of approximately four million lives and includes results for approximately 250 medical groups, 100 hospitals and 1,000 clinic locations of four or more providers in the entire state of Washington. Many measure results are also available on the report website for health plans, counties, and Accountable Communities of Health (ACHs).

This is the 12th edition of the Alliance's annual report to the community highlighting health care quality in Washington state since release of its inaugural report in 2008 and the fourth time the Alliance has reported on the Statewide Common Measure Set as part of the report. Specific results can be found on the Alliance's Community Checkup Website at www.WACommunityCheckup.org.

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 180 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).

Media Contact: Rebecca Snyders,                             
206.454.2961                     
[email protected] 

SOURCE Washington Health Alliance

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https://wahealthalliance.org