The Leapfrog Group and Med-Vantage Announce National Partnership on Incentive Program Research

Washington, DC and San Francisco, CA – Two prominent national organizations collecting and disseminating information on health care incentive and reward programs around the country have announced an historic partnership.  Beginning in 2006, The Leapfrog Group and Med-Vantage will collaborate on a national survey and compendium tracking all incentive and pay-for-performance programs, whether aimed at health plans, providers, or consumers. 

Currently The Leapfrog Group, an employer-led group challenging the health care industry to produce big leaps in health care safety, quality and value, manages a national compendium of all incentive and reward programs, updated on a voluntary basis by those listed.  Med-Vantage, a San Francisco based consulting and informatics company specializing in “pay for performance” (P4P) designs, measures, and reporting models, currently manages a comprehensive, in-depth national survey and report on provider P4P programs sponsored by government agencies, employers, or health plans.  Beginning next year, the two entities will combine forces to manage an expanded survey covering incentives and rewards for all stakeholders – health plans, providers, and consumers – in order to produce a much richer data base for the Leapfrog Incentives and Rewards Compendium. 

“We are excited about this new partnership,” said Leapfrog CEO Suzanne Delbanco, “because it will give the Leapfrog Incentives and Rewards Compendium much more depth and hopefully increase public awareness of the new value-based purchasing models that are emerging.”   The Compendium, first created in mid-2004 with assistance from The Robert Wood Johnson

Foundation and The Commonwealth Fund, lists programs by incentive target and geographic location.  It will be enhanced in 2006 with more sophisticated search categories and tools.  All information will remain in the public domain.

“The new partnership with The Leapfrog Group will provide tremendous value to health care purchasers, providers, consumers, and researchers seeking to better understand the entire universe of incentive programs,” noted Geof Baker, CEO of Med-Vantage.  “We are seeing significant growth in provider P4P programs, but the growth in employee incentive programs designed to induce healthier behaviors may turn out to be even more significant in the long run.”  Med-Vantage counts 107 active provider P4P sponsors around the country, up from 84 in 2004 and likely to increase by at least a third in 2006.  It will continue to gather detailed data on very technical aspects of P4P measurement, scoring, and reporting as part of its longitudinal research.

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The Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org) is an initiative driven by organizations that buy health care who are working to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality and affordability of health care for Americans. It is a voluntary program of over 170 members aimed at mobilizing employer purchasing power to alert America’s health industry that big leaps in health care safety, quality and customer value will be recognized and rewarded

Med-Vantage® (www.medvantage.com) is a healthcare informatics company that has attained industry leadership in deploying provider incentive systems. The company delivers a full range of services, including strategic advice on program design, provider engagement strategies, quality and efficiency metrics and reporting systems for high performance networks, P4P payout models, public scorecards and decision support applications for health plan members.  Current clients include more than 20 health plans, integrated health care systems, and physician organizations.