IHA Honors California Physician Organizations for Achieving Excellence in Healthcare

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 31, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA) announced the winners of its annual Excellence in Healthcare Award, California’s top honor for physician organizations. The award recognizes physician organizations that achieve top marks on quality and patient experience measures while managing costs. To earn this recognition, physician organizations must perform in the top 50 percent on clinical quality, patient experience and total cost of care.

Only 30 of nearly 200 participating physician organizations statewide attained Excellence in Healthcare Award performance standards this year.

IHA President and CEO Jeff Rideout, M.D. commended the top performers, saying, “IHA is proud to recognize physician organizations that are truly leading the way to high-quality, affordable, patient-centered care.”

For example, if all participating physician groups performed at the same level as the Excellence in Healthcare Award winners:

• An additional 49,000 California patients with diabetes would have their blood sugar controlled, helping to lower their risk of adverse health outcomes.
• 503,000 more California patients would rate their overall care quality a 9 or a 10, with 10 the highest score.
• Health care savings would be about $1.8 billion a year—or about $210 less spending on average per enrollee annually.

This performance is even more impressive when compared to non-integrated care networks and highlights the persistent performance advantage of integrated vs. non-integrated care on quality and total cost of care.

The 2019 Excellence in Healthcare award winners are:

• Arch Health Medical Group
• Axminster Medical Group
• Greater Newport Physicians
• Hill Physicians Medical Group - Bay Region
• Hoag Medical Group
• John Muir Health
• Kaiser Permanente Northern California Permanente Medical Group
  • Redwood City Medical Center
  • San Jose Medical Center
  • Santa Clara Medical Center
  • South San Francisco Medical Center
  • Vallejo/Vacaville Medical Centers
• Kaiser Permanente Southern California Permanente Medical Group:
  • Antelope Valley
  • Baldwin Park
  • Downey
  • Orange County
  • Panorama City
  • San Diego
• Loma Linda University Health Care
• MemorialCare Medical Group
• Mercy Medical Group – A Service of Dignity Health Medical Foundation
• Mission Heritage Medical Group
• PIH Health Physicians
• Primary Care Associates Medical Group
• Riverside Medical Clinic
• Sharp Community Medical Group
• St. Joseph Heritage Medical Group
• Sutter Medical Foundation - Sutter Medical Group
• UC Davis Health
• UC San Diego Health
• UCLA Medical Group

On average, the physician organizations participating in IHA’s performance measurement programs continue to show impressive gains in quality year over year.

“Being measured publicly is a huge commitment to high performance and performance improvement for all the physician organizations participating in IHA’s programs; demonstrating excellence takes that commitment that much further,” Rideout noted.

Most Improved: The Ronald P. Bangasser, MD, Memorial Award for Quality Improvement
IHA also honored the physician organizations that demonstrated the highest relative quality improvement from 2018 to 2019 from each of eight California regions. Recipients of the Ronald P. Bangasser, MD, Memorial Award for Quality Improvement for each region are:

• Bay Area region: Brown & Toland Physicians
• Central Coast region: Seaview IPA
• Central Valley region: Sutter Gould Medical Foundation – Gould Medical Group
• Inland Empire region: St. Mary’s High Desert Medical Group
• Los Angeles region: Cedars-Sinai Health Associates
• Orange County region: St. Jude Heritage Medical Group
• Sacramento region: UC Davis Health
• San Diego region: UC San Diego Health

A broader view of performance, including ACOs and Medi-Cal
As IHA expands its work beyond HMO and Medicare Advantage to commercial ACO and Medi-Cal, the industry is responding with 5 new health plans and 22 new physician groups joining in 2019.

And the bar keeps rising for physician groups participating. This year IHA adopted a new nationally-endorsed cost of care measure and is one of the first organizations to use it in public reporting.

About the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA)

Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA) brings healthcare together to solve industry-wide problems that no one can solve on their own. As a member-driven nonprofit, IHA convenes diverse stakeholders to promote the continuing evolution of integrated healthcare. We use objective data and insights to align California’s healthcare industry around the best ways to deliver high-quality, affordable and patient-centered care. Founded in 1994 and based in Oakland, California, we’re guided by a board of industry-leading health plans, physician organizations, hospitals and health systems, and representatives from purchaser, consumer, academic, pharmaceutical, and technology organizations.

For more information, please visit: www.IHA.org or contact Daniel Howell at daniel.howell@ogilvy.com.

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SOURCE Integrated Healthcare Association