For the fifth consecutive year, Bridges to Excellence, which measures and rewards physicians for delivering high-quality care, will pay bonuses to doctors in Massachusetts.
Rewards paid to date to Massachusetts doctors who have met the program's criteria total $2.5 million.
BTE programs in Massachusetts have enabled more than 1,000 physicians to make significant improvements in their systems and processes, with approximately 240 doctors recognized with rewards in 2008, according to the organization.
"BTE has provided direction and focus for our physicians' efforts to redesign their practices and improve their care for several years now," said Thomas H. Lee, MD, network president for the Partners Healthcare System. "The criteria for certification provide the direction, and the financial rewards provide the focus."
A recent study published in the October issue of (ital) The American Journal of Managed Care (end ital) indicates that BTE-recognized primary care physicians in Massachusetts provide better quality of care at a comparatively lower overall cost than their peers.
The research looked at physicians who had transformed their practices and were actively managing their patients and found that inpatient stays were lower across all patients as evaluation and management increased.
Bridges to Excellence officials credit the program's success in Massachusetts, where the program began, to the participation and collaboration of physicians, including the Lahey Clinic and Partners Healthcare System; employers AstraZeneca, EMC, GE, IBM, Raytheon and Verizon; and health plans, including BlueCross BlueShield of Massachusetts and Tufts Health Plan.
BTE is working with the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC), an initiative of the physician community to bring together the state's major healthcare stakeholders to establish an electronic medical records system. The goal is to accelerate the BTE recognition process and ease the reporting burden for doctors.
In 2009, BTE and MAeHC will partner to set up data streams that will allow physicians to voluntarily elect to have their data sent to an independent assessor - Masspro - to achieve BTE recognition. The availability of real-time, credible data will make it easier for doctors to participate and health plans to implement pay-for-performance programs.
BTE offers three programs - Physician Office Link, Diabetes Care Link and Cardiac Care Link - aimed at improving the quality of healthcare.
"Expanding the number of pathways physicians can achieve recognition by leveraging other local data efforts makes sense not only to reduce the burden on the physicians but from a community perspective so that care is ultimately patient centric," said Micky Tripathi, MAeHC's president and CEO.
"The BTE program recognizes the importance of implementing systems and processes in physician practices to coordinate care to improve quality and patient outcomes," said Judith A. Melin, MD, chief medical services officer at the Lahey Clinic.