Launch of "Buying Value" Project

Today, the Buying Value project was launched by a group of national and regional business and labor health care purchasers, including the National Business Coalition on Health, the Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project, and the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative.  The initiative seeks to take advantage of the major payment reforms coming from the federal government to align with private purchasers in an effort to promote value-based purchasing of health care.

NBCH has been a member of the Buying Value project team since its inception.  The project was originally referred to as Partnership for Patients in an attempt to align with the CMS Partnership for Patients project aimed at improving patient safety in hospitals.  However, since work on the project has evolved into a broader set of goals and objectives, partner organizations agreed that it should have its own identity, hence Buying Value.  

A website has been launched that contains some useful background documents on value-based purchasing, and will eventually have the capability to produce reports on health plan activities related to value-based purchasing.  In the future, NBCH will be working with its member coalitions and other Buying Value partners to encourage health plan participation in a Request for Information (RFI) to gather more information on health plans' value-based purchasing and patient safety initiatives.  

Please contact Colleen Bruce for additional information.

New initiative from Partnership for Patients aimed at improving hospital care

HHS announced a new program focused on providing hospitals across the country will new resources and support to make health care safer and less costly by targeting and reducing the millions of preventable injuries and complications from health care acquired conditions.

An initiative of the Partnership for Patients, a nationwide public-private collaboration to improve the quality, safety, and affordability of health care for all Americans, $218 million will go to 26 state, regional, national, or hospital system organizations. As Hospital Engagement Networks, these organizations will help identify solutions already working to reduce healthcare acquired conditions, and work to spread them to other hospitals and health care providers.

The 26 organizations receiving awards are:

Patient Safety Webinars

Thanks to all who joined last week’s Reducing Infections in the Intensive Care Unit webinar. The interactive session was the fourth of an eight-part patient safety webinar series hosted by the Partnership for Patients and the National Priorities Partnership (NPP). If you missed the webinar, you can access the recording now.

The next webinar in the series, Decreasing Surgical Site Infections, is August 16 at 1:00 pm ET. This webinar will feature Frank Opelka, MD, chair of Surgical Quality Alliance, Louisiana State University and NPP partner, who will provide ideas and insights for reducing surgical site infection through best practices. Learn more about the Partnership for Patients/National Priorities Partnership webinar series and register for upcoming webinars.

PAVE – Program for Advancing Value-based Expenditures

The Delta Group announces the launch of PAVE – the Program for Advancing Value-based Expenditures – a new hospital reporting opportunity for NBCH member coalitions. The objective of this hospital quality initiative is to create a catalyst for multi-stakeholder community action to improve hospital quality and reduce costs.

An informational webinar will be held on August 18th, 2011 from 2-3PM EDT - click here for the registration link.