WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CIGNA HealthCare today announced that it is joining with the HR Policy Association, an organization of the nation’s leading employers, to enhance the depth of information about provider quality and efficiency available to employers and consumers. The two organizations will work with The Leapfrog Group and Bridges to Excellence, both non-profit organizations focused on improving health care quality and efficiency and patient safety. With the rise in interest among health care consumers for quality information, education and data, CIGNA said the initiative is both opportune and important.
The initiative will begin in Phoenix and serve as a model for the sharing of data and information among employers, consumers and other health plans. Informational meetings are in process to encourage additional participation in this program.
Working together, the organizations will broaden access to standardized quality and efficiency measurements that will include Bridges to Excellence physician quality measures and The Leapfrog Group’s hospital performance measures. The program will also encourage adoption of The Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Rewards Program.
“Our member companies are committed to promoting regional reform efforts to improve the quality and affordability of health care in America,” said John Butler, executive vice president, administration and chief human resources officer for Textron Inc., and chair of Regional Health Care Quality Reform Initiatives for the HR Policy Association. “We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with one of the nation’s leading health plans to show how employers and health plans can work together to promote health care quality improvement.”
“CIGNA knows that providing robust data about costs, quality and efficiency enables employers as well as their employees to better manage their corporate and personal health care resources,” states Noel Obourn, senior vice president, CIGNA HealthCare, national segment. “We look forward to being part of an initiative that will help us develop even better consumer decision-support tools and benefit plans that reward efficiency and encourage the use of providers who meet or exceed quality measures.”
HR Policy Association, The Leapfrog Group and Bridges to Excellence all support CIGNA HealthCare’s measurement approach with regard to hospital and physician quality and efficiency. The initiative draws data from several sources, including public information, CIGNA claims data and measurements from The Leapfrog Group. “The keys to advancing dramatic quality improvements are measuring and rewarding hospitals based on how well they care for their patients,” said Suzanne Delbanco, chief executive officer of The Leapfrog Group. “This innovative partnership addresses both these needs.”
In addition, the program includes Bridges to Excellence measures that address physician quality. “Bridges to Excellence fits very well into this effort,” said Jeff Hanson, Verizon, chair of Bridges to Excellence. “Combining our efforts with those of Leapfrog, and partnering with CIGNA HealthCare and the HR Policy Association to advance quality improvement in Phoenix creates a powerful and comprehensive approach to regional quality reform for care that can be emulated in other markets across the country. We encourage others to join our efforts and promote the use of a common set of quality measures.”
“We welcome all comers to this initiative,” adds Butler. “That includes additional health plans, regional coalitions and employers of all sizes. The more companies and organizations we have, the better our chances are for success in Phoenix and in other markets.” For more information about the upcoming seminars or the initiative, please contact the participating organizations or go to http://www.cigna.com/, http://www.hrpolicy.org/, http://www.leapfroggroup.org/ and http://www.bridgestoexcellence.org/ .
About the program participants:
CIGNA HealthCare, headquartered in Bloomfield, Connecticut, provides medical benefits plans, dental coverage, behavioral health coverage, pharmacy benefits and products and services that integrate and analyze information to support consumerism and health management. “CIGNA HealthCare” refers to various operating subsidiaries of CIGNA Corporation . Products and services are provided by these operating subsidiaries and not by CIGNA Corporation.
HR Policy Association is the public policy organization of senior human resources executives of more than 250 of the largest employers in the United States. Our mission is to assist our members in using the collective leverage of the membership to further critically important business and societal objectives. The focus on health care quality, availability, and cost for both current and retired employees has become the number one concern of senior HR executives. The Association formed the Health Care Policy Roundtable to bring together a select group of its HR vice presidents representing most of the major economic sectors in the Fortune 500. In addition to pursuing public policy initiatives, the Roundtable is currently driving several innovative health care projects in the private sector, including efforts to drive greater transparency and improvements in provider effectiveness and efficiency.
The Leapfrog Group is a national non-profit coalition of more than 165 Fortune 500 companies and other large private and public sector purchasers of health benefits. The Group works to trigger leaps in the safety, quality and affordability of healthcare by supporting informed health care decisions by those who use and pay for health care, and promoting high-value health care through incentives and rewards.
Bridges to Excellence coalition is a not-for-profit organization created to encourage significant leaps in the quality of care by recognizing and rewarding health care providers who demonstrate that they deliver safe, timely, effective, efficient and patient-centered care.
CIGNA HealthCare
Contact: Gwyn Dilday of CIGNA, +1-818-500-6370 or Gwyn.Dilday@cigna.com
Web site: http://www.hrpolicy.org/
Web site: http://www.leapfroggroup.org/
Web site: http://www.bridgestoexcellence.org/
Web site: http://www.cigna.com/
Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/165050.html