SEATTLE, WA — Understanding where the highest quality care is offered for the lowest cost in Washington could be crucial to decision-making, but has been challenging to answer.
Building off its work this year on a Quality Composite Score and the Total Cost of Care, the Washington Health Alliance now can offer a glimpse into where higher quality care is paired with lower cost.
In a new highlight, released Wednesday, the Alliance displays for the first time where medical groups and clinics measure up across Washington on both quality and cost. The analysis also displays where counties and Accountable Communities of Health stand under similar terms.
To review the full highlight, please visit the online tool.
“Patients want to receive care from the highest quality providers at the most reasonable cost for those services. This new report offers an easier visualization of this information for consumers,” said Dr. Drew Oliveira, the Alliance’s Executive Director. “In early 2023, we look forward to amplifying this view, including the drivers of costs, so that employers, health plans, and the consumer can use understandable data in their decision-making process.”
This highlight leverages the Alliance’s Community Checkup results from the Quality Composite Score and Total Cost of Care, both of which are based on claim data from its voluntary All-Payer Claim payer database. The analysis included medical claims from January 1 through December 31, 2020, for more than 4 million people, or more than 50% of Washington state’s population.
This report also offers an expanded sample for the Quality Composite Score, which rates medical groups against the state average of four different domains including prevention and screening; care for chronic diseases; coordinated, cost-effective care; and appropriate, cost-effective care. Those domains are comprised of up to 29 measures considered strong indicators of quality primary care.
Along with these four Quality Composite Score domains, this highlight adds the new, fifth domain of cost. While cost is a factor in this analysis, it does not impact a medical group or clinic’s Quality Composite Score since cost and quality are balanced against independent state averages.
For more on the Quality Composite Score and the Total Cost of Care, please visit the Washington Health Alliance’s Community Checkup site.
Contact: Nicholas Rondinone, senior marketing communications manager
Phone: 206-454-2961
Email: nrondinone@wahealthalliance.org