Taking care of patients is the most important responsibility of the healthcare industry. To achieve optimal care, providers require robust and valuable resources that support their efforts. At MVC’s inception in 2013, the primary focus was the development of hospital-based metrics to improve patient outcomes, reduce healthcare costs, and encourage hospitals to collaborate in best practice sharing. MVC has since expanded its focus outside the hospital walls, recruiting all 40 physician organizations (POs) to participate as MVC members and collaborate to improve the health of Michigan through sustainable, high-value healthcare.
In April of 2021, MVC released its first PO population-level report containing data on health care utilization, allowing POs to benchmark themselves against all MVC PO members. To ensure the continued provision of the highest quality information, MVC engages regularly with PO members to solicit feedback on MVC outputs and to understand their priorities. For example, feedback from MVC’s first PO-specific report resulted in the MVC Coordinating Center updating its patient attribution process to align with that of its Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) partners and their Physician Group Incentive Program (PGIP). As a result, MVC members are attributed to their respective POs with Blue Cross attribution methodology. The MVC Coordinating Center continues to leverage input from these stakeholders to drive the formation of PO-specific reports (see Figure 1).
Figure 1.
A new PO report released this week focuses on episode-based metrics related to joint replacement surgery. This report utilizes updated methodologies and is comprised of administrative claims from attributed members spanning 1/1/19 – 12/31/20 for BCBSM PPO Commercial and BCBSM Medicare Advantage. Reports were prepared for all POs that participate in MVC and had at least 11 joint replacement surgeries per year in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The selection of metrics contained in this report is a result of feedback from PO members and BCBSM.
The new PO Joint Replacement Report includes:
- Top five facilities where attributed patients had a joint replacement surgery
- Percent of joint replacement surgeries performed in an inpatient setting by six-month interval
- Percent of joint replacement surgeries performed in the inpatient setting
- Utilization rate after a joint replacement surgery in the inpatient/outpatient setting for the following:
- Home health care
- Skilled nursing facility (SNF)
- Emergency department (ED)
The MVC Coordinating Center is stratifying metrics by employed vs. independent PO using BCBSM’s Summer 2021 PGIP physician list. Therefore, POs with greater than 50% of their aligned providers employed by a health system are considered employed, and those with fewer than 50% are considered independent.
The report indicates a downward trend over time in the percent of surgeries performed in the inpatient setting (see Figure 2). This is a positive finding given the push for joint replacements to occur in the outpatient setting; however, it is unclear whether COVID-19 was a factor in this decrease given that the reporting period includes 2020.
Figure 2.
In addition, POs generally have low rates of skilled nursing facility (SNF) utilization (see Figure 3) and relatively higher rates of home health (see Figure 4) utilization. This finding is also encouraging since SNFs are expensive.
Figure 3.
Figure 4.
The metrics with the greatest variation among the different POs are home health rates as well as the overall percentage of joint replacement surgeries performed in the inpatient setting (see Figure 5).
Figure 5.
By understanding the needs of MVC PO members regarding present and future patient care improvement activities, MVC will be better able to improve its future PO reports. If you are interested in sharing feedback about these new PO reports, have any specific PO analytic requests, are undergoing new PO improvement initiatives, and/or would like more information about the Michigan Value Collaborative, please reach out to the Coordinating Center at michiganvaluecollaborative@gmail.com.