Employers to pay physicians for quality care

Bridges to Excellence, a program doctors helped develop, is one of the biggest corporate pushes to increase quality and decrease costs.

By Mike Norbut, AMNews staff. April 28, 2003.

Some of the nation's biggest employers are ready to hand thousands of dollars to physicians -- if they meet certain quality standards.

The employers are working through a nonprofit organization called Bridges to Excellence, a pay-for-performance project. The organization will pay individual doctors with funds from participating companies and a $330,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Initially, the project is focusing on rewarding physicians located in Boston, Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky., $100 per patient for meeting standards for quality diabetes care, and physicians in Boston will receive $55 per patient for installing processes to reduce errors and improve quality.

The per-patient numbers cover those patients employed by participating companies. So far, Procter & Gamble, Humana, Ford Motor Co., General Electric, UPS and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have signed up for the diabetes program, while Verizon Communications and GE are in the physician office program. Several health plans that were involved in creating the program also will help promote the program to their member physicians.

The pilot cities were chosen based on where employees of participating companies were located; the program may be expanded as more employers sign up. The program also plans an effort aimed at cardiac care.

The project is a considerable stepping up of pressure by major payers to increase quality, especially through the use of standards and electronic medical record technology, yet saves money in the process. Bridges to Excellence touts that under the diabetes plan, a company can save a net of $175 per year per employee.