Group to make business case for patient safety
Some of the leading buyers of health benefits have formed a coalition called the Leapfrog Group. Coalition members include Fortune 500 companies as well as public sector purchasers.
"We’re starting with the purchasers," says Suzanne Delbanco, PhD, Leapfrog’s executive director.
"Eventually, we’re hoping to make a business case for practices that protect patient safety. Patients’ relationships are with their providers. The health plans are necessary partners, but Leapfrog’s goal is to get purchasers and pro-viders together. So we’re setting up rewards for the hospitals and providers," she explains.
The incentives include preferential referrals
by large purchasers in a given region. Leapfrog members will agree to educate their employees about the importance of making informed health care choices and comparing the performance of providers.
Leapfrog’s purchasing principles include the application of substantial incentives in regional markets. Purchasers will use two or more of the following methods to reward delivery systems with higher value ratings:
- Patient volume. Support consumer selection of providers who offer higher value — good outcomes at competitive rates.
- Price. Offer value-based bonuses.
- Public recognition of superior performance.
"It’s about rewards and incentives to do the right thing to protect patient safety," she says.
One purchasing principle, for example, focuses on "discrete forward leaps in patient safety." Leapfrog members will rate providers and extend incentives to promote three "safety leaps":
1. Computer physician order entry, target Dec. 31, 2003.
2. Evidence-based hospital referral, target Dec. 31, 2002. Leapfrog standards state that the "evidence" requirement could be satisfied by:
• favorable publicly reported, risk-adjusted hospital outcome comparisons;
• favorable volume characteristics with mortality rates below regional norms. (See "Evidence-based Hospital Referral," at left.)
3. ICU physician staffing, target Dec. 31, 2003.
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