SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Community Health Plan of Washington (CHPW), Washington’s only not-for-profit health plan offering managed care to Apple Health and Medicare members, today announced an effort in partnership with the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) to test an approach to measuring individual outcomes. The Person-Driven Outcome Measurement demonstration project aims to better measure quality of care by evaluating how effective organizations are at helping individuals achieve their health goals.
“This demonstration is an opportunity to make valuable contributions to the field of public health research and work towards truly patient-centered care,” said Leanne Berge, CEO of CHPW. “We are honored to be selected and hopeful that this will encourage members to become more engaged in their health, which in turn will lead to improved quality of care and improved health outcomes.”
As one of only four plans in the nation selected to participate, CHPW will test approaches to collecting person-reported outcome measures (PROMs) across several different care management programs. This study, piloted by NCQA earlier this year, will look at the importance, reliability, validity and usability of quality measures. CHPW expects more than 200 people in Washington to participate.
“Existing care measures often may not accurately reflect what is most important to people, particularly adults with complex care needs and we hope to change that,” says Erin Giovannetti, Senior Research Scientist at the NCQA. “Community Health Plan of Washington brings a unique approach and we look forward to the findings from this project.”
CHPW views this demonstration as an opportunity to empower some of the more vulnerable individuals in the community to participate in and manage their own measures of health.
“Traditional care management may not proactively consider a member’s life and social determinant factors and priorities, but those factors can have a significant impact on that person’s health and overall life stability,” says Patty Jones, Chief of Health Services at CHPW. “We’re enthused to be part of this pilot and test these approaches to developing person-driven care outcomes. This approach is at the core of our mission and the pilot focuses on the vulnerable and complex populations that we work with every day.”
CHPW, along with providing a participating care manager, is leading the project in Washington State and coordinates the demonstration between NCQA and the care coordinators at the participating sites: HealthPoint, Yakima Neighborhood Health Services and the Southwest Area Agency on Aging and Disabilities of Southwest Washington.
The $2.1 million national project is co-funded by The John A. Hartford Foundation and The SCAN Foundation. In addition to CHPW, NCQA is working with three other, geographically diverse organizations to capture data from 800 participants. Data will be analyzed and published by NCQA. For more information on the project, please visit: http://www.ncqa.org/hedis-quality-measurement/research/measuring-what-matters-most.
About CHPW
Founded in 1992 by a network of community and migrant health centers in Washington State, Community Health Plan of Washington is a community-governed, not-for-profit health plan. The mission of CHPW is to deliver accessible managed care services that meet the needs and improve the health of Washington communities and to make managed care participation beneficial for community-responsive providers. CHPW serves approximately 300,000 members through Medicaid and Medicare programs across the State. To learn more, visit chpw.org or connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
