Hudson Valley Physicians Participating in National Program to Recognize and Reward High Quality Care; Bridges to Excellence Program Promotes Improvements In Chronic Care Management and Patient Safety for Consumers in Downstate Region.

FISHKILL, N.Y. -- Top-performing doctors in the Hudson Valley may soon be eligible for financial rewards through their participation in the nationally recognized Bridges to Excellence (BTE) initiative. BTE, established three years ago to recognize and reward higher quality care, is the nation's largest employer-sponsored "pay for performance" effort. The program uses the National Committee for Quality Assurance's (NCQA) widely accepted evidence-based quality measures to measure clinical care against best practice standards.

An important component of the Bridges to Excellence program is the financial reward that accompanies recognition of quality. Participating employers contribute to a pool that is subsequently made available to eligible physicians meeting the NCQA recognition criteria. BTE data show that physicians who are recognized as high quality performers under this approach have better care outcomes over time than physicians who are not. The BTE program recognizes physicians who are high performers in improving outcomes for specific chronic conditions and reducing medical errors and then rewards them through bonuses, information technology investments, and/or recognition in local directories.

"The Bridges to Excellence program will provide real synergy with the continuing development of the Taconic Health Information Network and Community (THINC)," noted A. John Blair III, MD, the driving force behind the Hudson Valley initiative to help doctors implement appropriate clinical information technology as a means of reducing medical errors and improving health care quality. "We especially want to help the small physician practices qualify for the BTE rewards, something that will also help them with other pay for performance programs. This is a win-win strategy for both doctors and their patients."

Physicians who are recognized by BTE have better patient outcomes and over time do significantly better on improving the delivery of medical care than those who aren't recognized by BTE. These doctors provide more preventive care and chronic disease management.

"BTE is trying to accelerate the pace of improvements in the marketplace by giving physicians a reason to apply for recognition and improve the practice of care," said BTE Treasurer and Co-founder Francois de Brantes. "What makes BTE unique is that we are using standard measures of quality for comparative purposes so physicians have a common definition to draw from."

BTE recognizes and values the link between information technology and quality improvement. Consequently, it rewards physicians who invest in technology to helps them improve the way they monitor and deliver patient care. They keep patients from unnecessary and costly hospitalizations. BTE provides physicians a platform to build excellence in care by helping doctors invest in better information systems, quality management systems, and care management systems.

The 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. In addition to National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH), Bridges to Excellence participants include large employers, health plans, the National Committee or Quality Assurance, MEDSTAT and WebMD Health, among others. The organizations are united in their shared goal of improving health care quality through measurement, reporting, rewards and education. For more information on Bridges to Excellence or to find out how to participate as an employer or a physician, visit the program's web site at http://www.bridgestoexcellence.org/ or contact the Medstat Group at 1-800-224-7161. For a complete list of recognized physicians to date, see: http://recognition.ncqa.org/.

The Taconic Health Information Network and Community (THINC) is a multi-stakeholder, community-wide data exchange among community physicians, hospitals, reference laboratories, pharmacies, payers, employers, and consumers. Clinical, insurance, administrative, and demographic information for more than 600,000 patients is available on a secured Internet infrastructure incorporating standards (HL-7, LOINC, ICD-9/10) and interoperability for data exchange. Unique to THINC, is the local, on-going support provided by MedAllies, which provides training and support to community clinicians and their office staff to drive adoption of the applications. THINC seeks participation from a broad range of health insurers that will offer financial incentives to community physicians for adoption of additional technology leading to an Electronic Medical Record (EMR). A. John Blair III, MD is the chairman and CEO of MedAllies. For more information, go to http://www.medallies.com/HudsonEMR/default.htm.