The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has named the first three participants in a program aimed at helping consumers get performance data of physicians and hospitals in their local market.
The Medicare Data Sharing for Performance Measurement program makes Medicare claims data available using strict privacy requirements to groups that CMS certifies as qualified to handle this data and to protect patient privacy.
Health Improvement Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati, Kansas City Quality Improvement Consortium, and Oregon Health Care Quality Corporation will combine Medicare and private insurance data to create comprehensive, useful reports on provider performance, according to a Nov. 21 CMS announcement.
[See also: New report shows healthcare cost, quality vary greatly across country; Study names 10 highest, 10 lowest cost metro areas for healthcare of commercially insured.]
With access to provider performance reports, employers and consumer organizations can identify and reward high quality health care providers in their local areas and develop online tools to help consumers and their families make better informed healthcare choices with this useful data.
"These organizations will make quality and cost information more available and easier to understand for the healthcare systems in their areas," said acting CMS administrator Marilyn Tavenner. In addition to consumers and businesses having better information on provider performance, "providers will have a greater incentive to improve the quality of care," she added.
To receive certain Medicare claims data, organizations participating in the program must show that they can manage and process consumer-focused data and can prevent breaches of protected health information. The organizations must also show that they are working with private insurers to access other payer data in order to produce comprehensive reports on provider performance.
Information that could identify specific patients will not be publicly released and strong penalties will be in place for misuse of the Medicare data, Tavenner said.
CMS has explained that sharing Medicare data with qualified entities through this program as part of the health reform law and the resulting reports produced by qualified entities will be an important driver of improving quality and reducing costs in Medicare, as well as for the health care system in general. It will also increase the transparency of provider and supplier performance.