NCQA Releases Quality Compass(r) 2003, Enhanced Quality Dividend Calculator; Tool Compares Plans' Impact on Health-Related Costs 7/30/2003
From: Brian Schilling or Barry Scholl of NCQA, 202-955-5104 or 202-955-5197 WASHINGTON, July 30 -- The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) today released Quality Compass 2003, the latest edition of its annual database of Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS(r)) and Accreditation information from the nation's health plans. This year's database features performance data and member satisfaction information from 267 health plans covering more than 61 million Americans. For the first time, Quality Compass also includes a special "Compass Edition" of NCQA's Quality Dividend Calculator (QDC), a tool that allows employers to model and compare how specific health plans will affect worker absenteeism and productivity rates. "The addition of the Quality Dividend Calculator to Quality Compass takes a lot of the guesswork out of buying health care," said NCQA President Margaret E. O'Kane. "It lets you see how any given plan will affect your workers' health and your bottom line-it's the first tool of its kind to show you the return you can expect for providing workers with better health care." Quality Dividend Calculator, Compass Edition: Automatic Data Input for Easy Comparisons NCQA's Quality Dividend Calculator, Compass Edition calculates how each plan is likely to affect absenteeism and productivity by starting with a plan's actual HEDIS results, which are automatically supplied when the user selects that plan using a pull-down menu feature. HEDIS measures address a broad range of clinical and service issues, including behavioral health, prenatal care and member satisfaction, and a plan's HEDIS results reflect the quality of care enrollees in that plan can be expected to receive. In addition, HEDIS provides health care purchasers and consumers with a snapshot of a plan's ability to deliver quality care to individuals with chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Those with poorly managed conditions tend to miss more work and are far less productive than individuals whose illnesses are well managed. For example, a person with diabetes whose condition is well controlled -- through the level of treatment that plans with high HEDIS scores provide -- will typically miss about two days of work per year due to her illness. If her condition is poorly controlled, she will miss 12 days. The QDC estimates a specific plan's expected absenteeism and lost productivity based on epidemiological data (about the prevalence of selected illnesses) and certain company-specific information such as overall revenue. If users wish to compare between multiple options, they can select a second plan using the pull-down menu. The results are presented in a side-by-side bar graph for easy comparison. "In a challenging health care environment such as we are facing, every edge is meaningful," said Vincent E. Kerr, Director, Healthcare Management, Ford Motor Company. "NCQA's Quality Dividend Calculator provides employers with an important tool to evaluate total health plan value." Quality Dividend Calculator, Online Edition A free, online version of the QDC is available at http://www.ncqa.org. Users of the Web-based tool can manually input HEDIS results in order to make plan-to-plan comparisons. HEDIS results for specific plans are available through Quality Compass or from the health plans themselves. Quality Compass 2003: Across-the-Board Results and Averages From the Nation's Health Plans As with past iterations of Quality Compass, the 2003 version includes complete national, regional and state averages and benchmarks. Quality Compass' electronic data file version features plan-specific Medicaid results and national averages. Quality Compass is the database upon which NCQA's annual State of Health Care Quality report is based. The 2003 State of Health Care Quality report will be released on September 18. Quality Compass is available on CD-ROM or as an electronic data file in Microsoft(r) Excel or SAS(r) formats. The Quality Compass 2003 CD-ROM and the electronic data files can be ordered online through NCQA's Web site, http://www.ncqa.org, or by calling 888-275-7585. NCQA's Quality Dividend Calculator was developed with the support of the HSM Group, Ltd. Research and development was supported in part by unrestricted educational grants from GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co., Inc., and the National Pharmaceutical Council. NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations, recognizes physicians and physician groups in key clinical areas and manages the evolution of HEDIS(r), the tool the nation's health plans use to measure and report on their performance. NCQA is committed to providing health care quality information through the Web, media and data licensing agreements in order to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices. NCQA provides a number of information products and services that are used by more than 350 organizations covering approximately 10 million employees. ------ (Editor's Note: NCQA makes Quality Compass? data available to the media at no charge. Republication of the data, or of any analysis based on the data, is embargoed until September 18, the release date of NCQA's State of Health Care Quality report. Reporters interested in producing local report cards should contact NCQA's Communications Department at 202-955-3509 to discuss data needs.) |