California Association of Physician Groups Unite to Improve Chronic Disease Care; Grant From the California HealthCare Foundation to Support This Work.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 2004

The California Association of Physician Groups (CAPG) was awarded a $200,000, 18-month grant by the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) to provide support to promoting improvement in chronic disease care.

"We are pleased to receive the grant to support the improvement of chronic disease care in California. This grant will enable us to promote the development and use of data standards and software tools to assist the use of integrated clinical data," says Donald Crane, CEO of CAPG, the state's largest association of physicians committed to organized healthcare delivery.

Chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma and coronary artery disease are the major cause of illness, disability and death in the United States. They are also a major cost driver. In 2000, the medical cost of chronic disease amounted to 75 percent of health care spending.

"Through our members, we will test processes and procedures for exchanging clinical data, including laboratory and pharmacy data and tools for validating the appropriate exchange of the data. We believe that integrating, storing, and measuring data will result in an improvement in chronic disease care for patients," adds Crane.

According to Dr. Sophia Chang, CHCF Director of Chronic Disease Care, "This effort is a critical first step towards improving the quality of chronic care for people in California. By working together with organizations such as CAPG, we can substantially address the challenges of providing the right information to physicians and supporting good care decisions. We are delighted that CAPG and their members are partnering with us in this work."

CAPG's efforts outside of the CHCF grant include a data repository project. CAPG members are in the process of finalizing an RFP that will be sent to a host of potential vendors seeking to serve as the contractor for this data integration effort. The data repository will provide a continuous flow of periodic ad hoc benchmarking reports on a variety of quality metrics.

The California HealthCare Foundation, (CHCF) based in Oakland, is an independent philanthropy committed to improving California's health care delivery and financing systems. Visit www.chcf.org for more information.

CAPG is comprised of 135 of California's leading physician groups that employ or contract with approximately 38,000 physicians. These physicians provide health care services to approximately 11.5 million Californians; more than 50-percent of the state's healthcare is delivered by physicians who are contracted with CAPG members. Members of CAPG are committed to the delivery of coordinated, accountable, clinically integrated healthcare services.