Leapfrog works in three main ways to create improvements in the quality of American health care.

• Building Transparency: We publish the results of the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, which assesses over 1,300 hospitals’ effort to improve the safety, quality and efficiency of their care.
• Incentives and Rewards: We help our employer members either directly or through their health plans to provide incentives and rewards to best performing hospitals.
• Making Health Care Safe and Effective: We collaborate with other organizations to be consistent in our efforts to improve healthcare.

Leapfrog members also agree to implement a number of ‘purchasing principles’ when buying health care for their enrollees.  They do this directly or through health plans or purchasing co-operatives.

The principles are:

1. Educating and informing enrollees about the safety, quality and affordability of health care and the importance of comparing the care offered by health care providers.
2. Recognizing and rewarding health care providers for major advances in the safety, quality and affordability of their care.
3. Encouraging health plans to implement the Leapfrog purchasing principles.
4. Building the support of benefits consultants and brokers to use and advocate for the Leapfrog purchasing principles with all of their clients