Measuring Results
Evaluation to assess whether states’ efforts are succeeding not only in changing primary care practices but also containing costs and improving quality, including patient experience.
Alabama | Patient Care Networks of Alabama (PCNA): Alabama is planning to have an outside entity perform Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys for a baseline and post-implementation evaluation of change in patient experience within each community network pilot. Additionally, the state will perform a pre- and post-financial analysis. Key outcomes of interest for the community network pilots will include improved clinical outcomes, improved patient satisfaction, and Medicaid cost containment. Specific measures that will be used include CAHPS survey results, emergency department utilization for asthmatics, HbA1C measures for diabetics, inpatient hospitalization, immunization rates, and average number of office visits. The University of Southern Alabama is assisting with evaluation design. The Alabama Healthcare Improvement and Quality Alliance Workgroup—a public/private effort—is working to collectively establish measures predicated on national standards that can be used to assess progress on all programs throughout the state.ACA Section 2703 Health Homes: Alabama has identified seven specific goals for the program:
Alabama will primarily use Medicaid claims and eligibility data to track the state’s performance specific to these goals. |
Alaska | The Alaska Patient-Centered Medical Home Initiative (AK-PCMH-I) will use claims data, provider records, satisfaction surveys, and when available EHR data, to evaluate each pilot site on 5 outcomes:
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Arizona | No known activity at this time. |
Arkansas | No known activity at this time. |
California | No known activity at this time. |
Colorado | Medical Homes for Children Program: Outcomes of interest for the Medical Homes for Children Program tracked by the Colorado Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing and Colorado Children’s Healthcare Access Program include:
Accountable Care Collaborative (ACC) Program: The primary goals of Colorado’s Accountable Care Collaborative program are to improve health outcomes through a coordinated, client/family-centered system that proactively addresses clients health needs and controlling costs by reducing avoidable, duplicative, variable and inappropriate utilization.
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Connecticut | As part of the incentive and performance improvement payments, Connecticut will track a number of specific pediatric and adult outcome and process measures. These measures include:Adult:
Pediatric:
Customized CAHPS-PCMH surveys for both the adult and pediatric populations will include questions to evaluate patient experience with medical homes and the Medicaid provider network. |
Delaware | No known activity at this time. |
District of Columbia | No known activity at this time. |
Florida | No known activity at this time. |
Georgia | No known activity at this time. |
Hawaii | No known activity at this time. |
Idaho | Idaho Medical Home Collaborative (IMHC): Practices participating in the IMHC multi-payer pilot report on measures in three categories:
For a complete list of required measures, visit the Idaho Medical Home Collaborative Pilot Measures matrix.
For more information on provider reporting requirements in addition to requirements under the IMHC program (see above), see the Idaho Medicaid summary. |
Illinois | Illinois Health Connect is taking a four-pronged approach to measurement. They are tracking:
The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services has announced that Illinois Health Connect saved the state approximately $150 million in fiscal year 2009. The state has also seen increases in developmental screenings, mammograms, and regular adolescent check-ups since implementing the program. |
Indiana | No known activity at this time. |
Iowa | IowaCare: IowaCare will draw on clinical information from patient registries and provider records to evaluate progress in several key areas of interest, including:
A draft of the full evaluation design is available here.
Specific measures, drawn from the National Quality Forum and CHIPRA core measure sets, include hospital admissions and readmissions, emergency department utilization, and skilled nursing facility visits. |
Kansas | No known activity at this time. |
Kentucky | No known activity at this time. |
Louisiana | Beginning in calendar year 2013, Bayou Health networks are required to report clinical and administrative performance data annually.Required data will include measures from the following sources:
For specific measures, please see the networks’ quality companion guide or the appendices for the prepaid and shared savings request for proposals. |
Maine | Maine PCMH Pilot: The University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service is undertaking an evaluation of Maine’s Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Pilot. The evaluation is assessing the impact of the PCMH Pilot on clinical outcomes, cost, and patient experience. PCMH Pilot sites are being compared with two control groups: (1) a group of highly capable practices that applied for participation in the Pilot but were not selected, and (2) a group of less capable practices (“usual care”).The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is also evaluating the impact of the Maine’s PCMH Pilot on outcomes for Medicare and Medicaid patients through a contract with RTI International. NASHP and the Urban Institute are subcontractors to RTI.ACA Section 2703 Health Homes: Maine will use claims, administrative data, qualitative data, quarterly progress reports from health home practices, and monitoring reports submitted by community care teams to measure success toward the state’s four goals for this state plan amendment:
Specific measures include hospital admissions and readmissions, emergency department utilization, and skilled nursing facility visits. |
Maryland | SB 855/HB 929 directs the Maryland Health Care Commission (MHCC)to adopt a, “uniform set of health care quality and performance measures that the participating patient centered medical home is to report to the commission and,” health plans. MHCC has contracted with Impaq International to conduct an evaluation of the program.The evaluation will draw on multiple data sources including: claims information, condition-specific quality measures, and patient/provider satisfaction surveys. MHCC expects to use a, “pre/post treatment with a quasi-experimental control group of similar practice.” As of August 2011, the evaluation was expected to be more expensive than had originally been estimated. |
Massachusetts | Massachusetts Patient-Centered Medical Home Initiative: The University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Department of Commonwealth Medicine will conduct an evaluation of the Patient-Centered Medical Home Initiative (PCMHI).Primary Care Payment Reform Initiative (PCPRI): The PCPRI RFAidentifies 23 quality measures that participating practices will be required to report across six domains:
These measures will impact pay for reporting, pay for quality performance, and shared savings payments over the course of the three year initiative. For more information on the selected measures, including impact on payment, see Attachement D of the PCPRI RFA. |
Michigan | Reporting activity in the Michigan Primary Care Transformation (MiPCT) Project includes:
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Minnesota | Minnesota’s Evaluation of Health Care Homes: 2010-2012, released by the Minnesota Department of Health in January 2014, produced a number of positive findings on the program’s impact on quality of care, utilization, and cost:
Minnesota’s Outcomes Measurement Work Group previously developed recommendations for the state’s evaluation, proposing to focus evaluation efforts on clinical quality (especially care for patients with asthma and vascular conditions), patient access to care and experience of care, and cost (especially rates of hospitalizations, readmissions, emergency department use, and total cost of care). |
Mississippi | No known activity at this time. |
Missouri | ACA Section 2703 Health Homes – Community Mental Health Centers: MOHealthNet will use claims, a disease registry, a web-based electronic medical record, monthly health home reports, and annual status reports to measure success in eight specific goals specified in their first health home state plan amendment:
Missouri will assess quality improvement and clinical outcome measures at both the practice and aggregate levels.
Missouri will assess quality improvement and clinical outcome measures at both the practice and aggregate levels. |
Montana | No later than March 31, 2015, participating medical home practices must submit a uniform set of health care quality and performance measures. Specifically, practices must report on three of the four following measures: hypertension, tobacco use and intervention, A1C control, and childhood immunizations. Pediatric practices are expected to report on immunizations only. Additional information is available here.Furthermore, no later than March 31, 2015, participating payers are required to report both emergency room visit and hospitalization rates. If a payer tracks patient attribution to medical homes, they are required to submit this data for both their PCMH members and their entire member population.Montana also participated in the North Carolina Infrastructure for Maintaining Primary Care Transformation (IMPaCT) Learning Community, where it was one of four states to receive technical assistance and guidance from North Carolina on how to develop a primary care support and quality improvement system. |
Nebraska | Nebraska Medicaid Patient-Centered Medical Home Pilot: Nebraska identified five outcomes of interest for the Medicaid Patient-Centered Medical Home Pilot, which launched in February 2011 and ran through February 2013:
A list of measures for each outcome of interest is available here.
Multi-Payer Patient-Centered Medical Home Pilot: The participation agreement for Nebraska’s multi-payer medical home pilot requires participating payers select measures for practice reporting from a mutually agreed-upon list. The lists of adult quality measures and pediatric quality measures are available online. |
Nevada | No known activity at this time. |
New Hampshire | No known activity at this time. |
New Jersey | New Jersey Medicaid Medical Home Demonstration Project: According to New Jersey’s Medicaid managed care contract, Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) are to evaluate their medical home demonstrations using the following criteria:
Reports are to be made to the Division of Medical Assistance and Health Service (DMAHS) annually. |
New Mexico | New Mexico Medicaid plans to adopt a common set of performance measures for quality improvement, possibly drawing from NCQA and Electronic Health Record Meaningful Use requirements. Also, utilization measures and cost data will be included in the performance reporting and feedback process to practices and plans. The state is exploring methods to aggregate performance data to identify pockets of care disparities and high avoidable costs.Initial quality measures have included monitoring diabetic and asthmatic patients. Annual reviews of PCMH pilots include implementation of a scorecard with cost, quality and satisfaction measures. New Mexico is also monitoring emergency department and inpatient utilization. |
New York | Adirondack Medical Home Demonstration: The four major goals of the Adirondack Medical home demonstration are to:
Statewide Patient-Centered Medical Home Program: Chapter 58 of the Laws of 2009 requires the state health commissioner to report on the Statewide Patient-Centered Medical Home Program’s impact on quality, cost, and outcomes to the legislature and governor by December 31, 2012.
New York is also developing a patient experience survey tool that includes elements of AHRQ’s Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys and implement learning collaborative with health home providers and high-risk enrollees to discuss program successes, challenges, and lessons learned. |
North Carolina | Community Care of North Carolina (CCNC): Treo Solutions, Inc. has reported that Community Care of North Carolina has saved over $1.5 billion between 2007 and 2009. Mercer, Inc. prepared studies that found annual savings ranging from $154-194 million between 2006 and 2009.CCNC has also reported that enrollee’s diabetes, asthma, and heart disease HEDIS measures rank in the top 10% nationally (compared to commercial managed care plans).Practice assessments are completed by local Community Care Program Office using:
Furthermore, an informatics center can provide feedback reports at the individual, practice, network and state levels. However, certain data (including substance abuse and HIV data) cannot be included in individual reports.
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North Dakota | No known activity at this time. |
Ohio | PCMH Education Pilot Project:PCMH Education Pilot Project: The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) education advisory group selected a number of practice and curriculum metrics. The selected metrics fall into six categories:
For specific measures selected, please see pages 7-8 of the advisory group’s final work product report.
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Oklahoma | SoonerCare Choice: The Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) uses HEDIS measures to evaluate performance.The SFY2010 Performance and Quality Report describes that the OHCA Quality Assurance and Improvement Department uses standardized audit tools to conducts on-site reviews of contracted SoonerCare Choice providers.Following the redesign of SoonerCare Choice, the number of patients contacting the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) for same/next day access issues in a year decreased from 1670 in 2008 to 13 in 2009 to 4 in 2010.The program has demonstrated a $29 decrease in per capita member costs (per patient/per year) from 2008-2010 while increasing evidence-based primary care services (including breast and cervical cancer screening).A 2009 pediatric health survey showed an increase of more than 18 percent of patients between 2007 and 2009 who “always [received] treatment quickly.” A 2010 adult health survey found a similar increase of 8 percent for adults between 2008 and 2010. |
Oregon | Oregon Patient-Centered Primary Care Home (PCPCH) Program: Chapter 595 of the 2009 Oregon Laws requires practices receiving Patient-Centered Primary Care Home (PCPCH) reimbursement to report quality measures specified by OHPR. Proposed PCPCH measures vary by tier, and can be found in Appendices C and D of the Standards Advisory Committee’s final report.Under the upcoming Integrated and Coordinated Health Care Delivery System, CCOs will be required to report uniform quality measures for PCPCHs to OHA.PCPCH efforts will be included in a statewide scorecard to measure success for the Action Plan for Health across the OHA lines of coverage as well as statewide.ACA Section 2703 Health Homes: Oregon will use the state’s Medicaid Management Information System to collect population-level data to measure success toward the state’s five goals for this state plan amendment:
The state will also use AHRQ’s Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys to measure care coordination and implement learning collaborative with health home providers and high-risk enrollees to discuss program successes, challenges, and lessons learned. |
Pennsylvania | The Commonwealth Fund funded researchers at RAND and Harvard School of Public Health to conduct an evaluation of Phase I of the Chronic Care Initiative (CCI). The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is evaluating the impact of the Phase II CCI on outcomes for Medicare patients through a contract with RTI International. NASHP and the Urban Institute are subcontractors to RTI. Final evaluation results are not yet available, but the state has seen promising improvements in process measures as determined by Pennsylvania’s Improving Performance in Practice (IPIP) program. |
Rhode Island | The Care Transformation Collaborative of Rhode Island (CTC): The Commonwealth Fund is paying for researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health to conduct an evaluation of the CTC.The 2014-2015 clinical quality measures are included in Contractual Performance Standards, found here.The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is also evaluating the impact of CTC on outcomes for Medicare patients through a contract with RTI International. NASHP and the Urban Institute are subcontractors to RTI. The First Annual Report is available here, and the state has reported promising improvements in process measures. ACA Section 2703 Health Homes – CEDARR Family Centers: Rhode Island will use claims and encounter data, the KIDSNET database, quarterly and annual health home reports to Medicaid, and annual chart reviews to measure success toward the state’s five goals for this state plan amendment:
The state is also working to develop surveys to measure process outcomes and lessons learned at participating CEDARR Family Centers.
The state is also collecting data on patient experience of care. |
South Carolina | The South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services requires participating medical home networks to work with the department to establish outcome measures relevant to the program.Furthermore, an external quality review organization conducts an annual quality assurance evaluation for each medical home network. This process includes:
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South Dakota | No known activity at this time. |
Tennessee | No known activity at this time. |
Texas | No known activity at this time. |
Utah | Utah’s Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization (CHIPRA) proposal included funding for an independent evaluation. Utah anticipates that the evaluation will focus on:
Project leaders anticipate drawing on Utah’s all-payer claims database to use other practices as controls. |
Vermont | The evaluation between Blueprint participants and Comparison groups, reported on in the 2013 Vermont Blueprint for Health Annual Report, released in January 2014, suggested a positive impact on clinical quality, utilization, and cost:
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Virginia | No known activity at this time. |
Washington | Washington State’s mutli-payer Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Pilot has planned for the University of Washington School of Public Health to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of their project. The evaluation will focus on the impact of the payment method on utilization, cost, outcomes, and experience. The evaluation team will draw on qualitative data (experience surveys, key informant interviews) and quantitative data (claims data, clinical quality measures). The evaluation will continue through 2014 in order to study changes following the conclusion of the program. Further information on evaluation is available on pages 34-35 here.The PCMH Collaborative has released a preliminary summary of evaluation results for participating practices. The summary provides information on:
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West Virginia | The Medical Home Performance Incentive Pilot focused on the following outcomes:
In the West Virginia Health Improvement Institute’s (WVHII) 2012 annual report, WVHII reported that providers felt the pilot improved their workflows and care planning capabilities. While the costs for patients attributed to the demonstration rose 0.6% over the life of the pilot, costs for practices that did not achieve NCQA recognition rose by 2.0%. |
Wisconsin | Wisconsin has identified two specific goals for its ACA Section 2703 Health Homes program:
Wisconsin will use public health surveillance data, claims data from the state’s Medicaid Management Information System, and enrollees’ medical records to track the state’s performance on these goals. |
Wyoming | The Wyoming Department of Health selected nine clinical quality measures that practices are required to report in 2015:
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