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Benefits March 16, 2007
Employers Say Hospitals, Doctors, Holding Back
March 16, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Large employers
are working toward achieving transparency in health-care
pricing, quality of care, and efficiency, but want doctors
and hospitals to move ahead more quickly on that
front.
Reported by Nevin E. Adams
That was among the findings of a new survey by the National Business Group on Health (NBGH) and Mercer Health & Benefits LLC, which also noted that nearly half (44%) of the 120 survey respondents said that the current ability to measure provider performance is adequate and measurement s hould begin now (30% say provider performance cannot yet be adequately measured; 26% don’t know). About half about half (56) of the survey respondents had 20,000 or more employees.
Information Sharing
Most respondents believe that resistance from physicians (82%) and hospitals (77%) is one of the most significant barriers to provider performance measure ment efforts. Nearly a third (29%) currently make some provider quality/cost information available to members, and nearly half (47%) believe this has resulted in improvements in quality/cost.
Most respondents believe that resistance from physicians (82%) and hospitals (77%) is one of the most significant barriers to provider performance measurement efforts; far fewer are concerned about resistance from health plans (36%) or about cost (40%).