Leading Health Plans from Across the Country Attend HBI’s 4th Annual Users’ Group Conference

Woodland Hills, CA – July 9, 2007 - Health Benchmarks? Inc. (HBI) hosted its 4th Annual Pay-for-Performance Users’ Group Conference on the 19th and 20th of April 2007, at the Shutters Hotel and Spa in Santa Monica, California. The purpose of the conference was to bring leading health plans together to exchange information, experiences, and insights for advancing and enhancing, physician measurement, transparency and pay-for-performance initiatives. Conference attendees included medical directors and quality improvement leaders from, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, the Hawaii Medical Service Association, Regence BlueShield (WA, OR, ID, UT), Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Tennessee, among others.

The keynote speech was delivered by Angela Cafferillo, General Electric who presented on “Managing Health Care Cost: What Employers Want and Need from Health Plans.” Besides aggressive cost management, the health plans learned that operationalizing strategies around transparency and linking quality and efficiency to reimbursement were very important.  The rest of the conference was devoted to three main areas: Consumer Engagement, Cost of Care and Efficiency Measurement and Quality Measurement. David Howard, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy, Emory University presented on “Trust the Consumer” which provided the plans with insight on how consumers use information to make health care decisions. Dr. Robert Kaplan, PhD, Chair, Department of Health Services, UCLA School of Public Health, provided a very thought provoking talk on “Rationale and Public Health Implications of Changing CHD Risk Factor Definitions” which highlighted some key areas that could drive up health care costs for the plans in the future. Finally, Arnold Cohen, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Thomas Jefferson University, headed a discussion regarding “Pay for Performance in Ob/Gyn- The Future? Or a Passing Fancy?” Dr. Cohen highlighted key areas for health plans to concentrate on when developing quality measures for OB/GYN.”  Specifically, he noted how health plans can improve on issues relating to prematurity, multifetal pregnancy care, hysterectomy alternatives, and contraception.

Conference attendees also were engaged in various roundtable discussions in order to discuss and share best practices in each of these areas. In addition HBI was able to demonstrate a new innovative Web Based Transparency tool for physicians which allows health plans and their network physicians to share information in reference to measurement. HBI’s President and CEO, Antonio Legorreta, M.D., M.P.H, thought this conference was the one of the best in the four years and that the attendees really were able to interact and learn during the conference, “Bringing all of our partners together along with other industry experts allows everyone to advance their goals of implementing the most innovative Pay for Performance programs in the industry.”

Health Benchmarks? Inc. (HBI) is an industry leader in the development of physician and hospital pay-for-performance programs, and delivers real world business solutions that drive and sustain high quality and value in the healthcare industry. In addition HBI is an applied health services research company that specializes in transforming healthcare data into meaningful, actionable information for managed care organizations, pharmaceutical companies, large employers, and other health services organizations. Utilizing the company’s analytical assets, HBI conducts complex health outcomes research and analyses to facilitate evidenced based decision-making in an increasingly competitive marketplace.  Please visit www.healthbenchmarks.com or call 1-800-465-6575 for more information.