22 Jul 2021
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Condition Selection Process Announced for MVC Component of BCBSM P4P Program

July 22, 2021 | 0 Comments

This week the Michigan Value Collaborative (MVC) Coordinating Center announced the condition selection process for program year (PY) 2022 and PY 2023 of the MVC Component of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) Pay-for-Performance (P4P) program. The timeline for each program year’s stages are detailed in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

In the announcement, hospitals were tasked with selecting two conditions for which they will be evaluated and returning their condition selection form to the Coordinating Center by Friday, August 13, 2021. The announcement also outlined changes to the scoring methodology, cohort assignments, and bonus points available.

The Coordinating Center’s recent announcement included condition selection reports with targets for each condition option that may help inform hospitals’ selection decisions. Each participating hospital will choose two of the seven available conditions for PY22 and PY23: spine surgery, joint replacement, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), congestive heart failure (CHF), colectomy (non-cancer), and pneumonia. When selecting conditions, the Coordinating Center recommends reviewing your data in the registry and considering several factors for each condition, including case counts and identifiable areas with the greatest cost opportunities. The Coordinating Center also recommends considering where resources are currently being directed in your facility and potentially aligning with those efforts.

One notable change from prior program years is the methodology by which hospitals earn achievement and improvement points. Hospital scores will continue to be based on a hospital’s risk-adjusted, price-standardized total episode payments for two selected conditions, and they can still earn a maximum score of 10 points. However, the improvement and achievement scores will become more similar in order to be placed on the same scale. As such, the achievement equation will change from being based on rank within MVC cohort at performance year to being based on distance from MVC cohort mean at baseline year. Similarly, the improvement equation will utilize the distance from the hospital’s mean at baseline. These new equations (see Figure 2) as well as complete descriptions of the updated methodologies are reviewed at length with examples in the technical document.

Figure 2.

P4P cohorts have also been reassigned for PY22 and PY23. These changes are also detailed in the technical document, and the new cohort assignments can be found on the MVC website. The cohorts are not intended to group hospitals that are exactly alike; rather, they create a reasonably-comparable grouping from which MVC can complete statistical analysis.

The final change is to the awarding of bonus points. In place of the previous 5% cohort reduction bonus, participants can instead earn bonus points by completing two questionnaires (one per selected condition) and submitting these to the Coordinating Center by November 1st of each program year. The purpose of this is to gather examples of quality improvement initiatives in operation at MVC member hospitals to share with the Collaborative. Moving forward, this will help support members in reducing costs through collaboration.

Each of the changes mentioned above are designed to deliver a more transparent, intuitive, flexible, and fairer P4P program. The Coordinating Center will offer an explainer webinar to answer questions and walk through the details of these changes in more detail. The webinar will be offered on two dates: the first is scheduled for Thursday, July 29 from 11:00-12:00 pm, and the second is on Tuesday, August 3 from 1:00-2:00 pm. Both webinars can be accessed using the following Zoom link: https://umich.zoom.us/j/95502303999. Participants can also call +1 301 715 8592 (meeting ID #955 0230 3999). For those interested in the explainer webinar who are unavailable on both dates, a recording of the first webinar will be available. If you are interested in receiving a link to this recording, please email the MVC team at michiganvaluecollaborative@gmail.com.

17 Jun 2021
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Custom Hospital Analytics Result in Case Study for Collaborative

June 17, 2021 | 0 Comments | , ,

The Michigan Value Collaborative (MVC) Coordinating Center encourages its members to seek out custom analytics to inform and support ongoing quality improvement activities. These requests can help hospitals and physician organizations dig deeper into specific aspects of their administrative claims data and, as a result, better understand areas for improvement.

As custom analytics have been prepared and shared with respective members, the Coordinating Center has endeavored to learn the extent to which these analytics have been utilized. The resulting feedback has enriched MVC’s understanding of its members’ quality initiatives, and presents a great opportunity for MVC to educate its members about the successes and lessons learned of their peers.

In that spirit, the Coordinating Center has sought the permission of various hospitals to generate case studies based on this collaborative work. One such case study featuring McLaren Port Huron Hospital was created this past year and shared with the entire Collaborative via the MVC Newsletter (Figure 1). It features a custom analytics request about the rates and adherence of follow-up visits in their congestive heart failure (CHF) population as well as readmission rates for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The resulting custom analytics reports prepared by the Coordinating Center were also accompanied by best practice sharing sourced from other Collaborative members.

Figure 1.

The Coordinating Center plans to continue to generate shareable case studies about similar requests if those facilities have provided their permission. Similarly, MVC will continue to identify such opportunities for information sharing and networking across facilities in order to support its members.

If any members of the Collaborative are interested in pursuing custom analytics in the future or have ideas to share across hospitals, please contact the Coordinating Center at michiganvaluecollaborative@gmail.com.

27 May 2021
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Introducing Jana Stewart, MPH, MS Communication Specialist for MVC

Introducing Jana Stewart, MPH, MS Communication Specialist for MVC

May 27, 2021 | 0 Comments

I am excited to join the Michigan Value Collaborative (MVC) as Communications Specialist. This new position will help highlight MVC’s success stories, support MVC member events and engagement activities, and promote MVC services throughout the state of Michigan. I look forward to getting to know MVC members and hearing their feedback in the coming months.

I have worked in communications in various capacities over the past 10 years, and as a result my writing has been published in academic journals, newspapers, magazines, and K-12 curricula. I started out in journalism as a sports writer, copy editor, and then managing editor of a regional newspaper, during which I earned writing awards from the Michigan Press Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. My time as a journalist allowed me to write about a wide range of topics, from city government and local business to high school sports and crime.

When I left journalism for a position at the University of Michigan, I continued to provide broad communications support to administrative offices and research labs. Through this work I developed a strong interest in programs that sought to improve the long-term health of people and places. As a result, I also enrolled as a dual-degree master’s student in public health and environmental science. I have three degrees from the University of Michigan in total, including a Bachelor of Arts in Kinesiology, a Master of Science in Environmental Psychology, and a Master of Public Health (MPH).

Following the completion of my MPH program, I spent several years in the field working for primary prevention programs. I worked for a hospital-based farm in the St. Joseph Mercy/Trinity Health network, and then with Michigan Medicine’s Project Healthy Schools program. Implementing interventions in the field helped me to see first-hand the impact that such programs can have on a population or institution. Now I am truly excited to support the mission and vision of the MVC as I return to communications full-time. I know there are tremendous untold stories about the impact of MVC’s efforts on Michigan hospitals and patients. If you have a story to tell or a question to ask, please reach out to me at janaemil@med.umich.edu. I would love to hear from you!