MINNEAPOLIS, March 13, 2008 - MN Community Measurement is one of several Bridges to Excellence (BTE) pilot projects striving to improve pay-for-performance programs by basing them on data from electronic medical records (EMRs).

The pilots will leverage the work done at local levels by groups such as MN Community Measurement, MassPRO in Massachusetts, and others. The goal is to analyze regional successes to create pay-for-performance models that could be used across the nation. Early pilots are in progress with more extensive efforts beginning later this year. Additional details on BTE’s performance assessment pilots can be found at http://www.bridgestoexcellence.org/paos.

Currently, the assessment of physician performance is most often based on claims data, which is controversial, or by auditing paper charts, which is laborious and expensive for physicians and health plans. These methods create long lead times for review, analysis and performance reporting and deaden the potential for rapid-cycle quality improvement.

It’s long been thought that assessing doctors based on data from electronic medical records was impractical. The cost would be too high and the presence of electronic data would be insufficient for payers to track performance.

However, Jim Chase, executive director of MN Community Measurement, said that is changing.

“As adoption of EMRs grows, reliance on claims data as a primary source for measuring quality will diminish,” Chase said in a statement. “We have been able to show that direct submission of data from EMRs can work and yields better measures than claims information alone. We’re excited to assist BTE in other parts of the country in collecting and analyzing EMR data for quality measurement.”

Minnesota has already been able to use EMR data directly submitted to MN Community Measurement to track performance.

“This effort is not just about reporting,” said George J. Isham, M.D., medical director and chief health officer for HealthPartners, Inc. and member of BTE’s board of directors. “It’s about creating frequent performance feedback mechanisms to aid physicians in reengineering their practices.”

Bridges to Excellence (BTE) is a non-profit coalition-based organization created to encourage leaps in the quality of care by recognizing and rewarding health care providers who demonstrate that they deliver safe, timely, effective, and patient-centered care. BTE works with large employers, health plans, providers and a wide range of organizations that have a shared goal of improving quality and patient outcomes.