Collaborative Model for Public Reporting on Provider Effectiveness and Patient Experiences

Perspective: A Collaborative Model for Public Reporting on Provider Effectiveness and Patient Experiences—Massachusetts Health Quality PartnersBy Jeffrey Levin-Scherz and Thomas H. Lee, Partners Community HealthCare, Inc. If you doubt that public reporting can drive improvements in quality without dividing payers and providers, watch carefully what happens in Massachusetts this year. This month, Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP) released a comprehensive report on the effectiveness of care provided by physician groups. (Effectiveness of care means the reliability with which patients receive tests and treatments known to improve outcomes.) Then in March, MHQP will for the first time publish data about patient experiences with care for about 150 medical groups. Previously, such data had been released at the network level only.What will the impact be? Surveys suggest that, as yet, patients do not aggressively seek out or act on such information.[1]