Building and Maintaining Health Care Performance Information – California Cooperative Healthcare Reporting Initiative (CCHRI)

Problem: For purchasers, their employees and consumers in general to make the best health plan and provider purchasing decisions, they need information on comparative performance. Standardized and comparable information can be a tool for consumers, plans and providers - used to drive quality improvement at all levels. In the past, some health plans created their own measurement systems or collected information but did not publicly report it, resulting in confusing and even conflicting information.

PBGH Role and Project Description: The California Cooperative Healthcare Reporting Initiative is a collaborative of health care purchasers, plans and providers. The Pacific Business Group on Health initially convened and now manages the group to promote collaboration instead of competition in health plan and provider level data collection and reporting. Ten California health plans participate in a variety of CCHRI data collection activities, and many plans participate in several different projects. It publishes a yearly report with performance data. CCHRI provides the following:

• A single process for collection and analysis.

• Use of an independent and impartial third party to assemble and analyze the data.

• Standardized performance reporting definitions and an audit of all measures.

The project is supported by fees from participating health plans and physician groups, with supplemental funding from the PBGH Quality Improvement Fund.

Impact:  CCHRI's voluntary collaborative approach has helped drive quality measurement and improvement in California . Participating health plans provide health benefits to nearly 95 percent of the state's commercial enrollment. CCHRI benefits PBGH member employees and California consumers by assuring that plans can be compared on an "apples-to-apples" basis. This approach has also benefited the health plans by streamlining and reducing the burden for collection and reporting of the information. Publicly reporting quality information helps improve performance. Health plans are able to use the results for their own quality improvement. Since the start of reporting in 1994 there have been significant advances in patient care and satisfaction according to CCHRI health plan and physician group results. The information collected by CCHRI is used to populate the Healthcare Quality Report Card sponsored by the California Office of the Patient Advocate. CCHRI also serves as a source of data for the IHA Pay-for-Performance program.

Current Activities:

2006 results are in for Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) and Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey (CAHPS) data collection projects. They appear in the annual CCHRI Report on Quality, which is distributed via the CCHRI Web site along with the results of the 2006 California Patient Assessment Survey, which evaluates patient experience at the medical group level. The report includes a comparison of plan HEDIS averages to national averages as reported in the Quality Compass of the National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA).

Download the 2006 CCHRI Report on Quality.

Visit the CCHRI Web site.

For information regarding Pay for Performance (P4P) visit the IHA website.

Click here for a copy of the Pay for Performance (P4P) Clinical Measure Pilot Final Report dated September 5, 2003.

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