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August 20, 2010 Puget Sound Business Journal Group Health testing insurance incentives in effort to cut health-care costs Group Health Research Institute has received a $2 million federal grant to study whether “value-based insurance design,” a new health-insurance model, can support and improve patient health and reduce cost. This model employs financial incentives and disincentives to encourage patients to use health services that research shows support and improve their health and discourage them from using services of less value. Executive Director Mary McWilliams of the Puget Sound Health Alliance, said value-based insurance is based on “evidence about what works to design health benefits,” and its financial incentives help patients make good health care choices. Read more April 11, 2010 The Everett Herald Providers need to better understand all of their patients Responding to the needs of a diverse population is crucial for all our region’s health-care providers. The Puget Sound Health Alliance is bringing businesses, health care organizations, community groups and health plans together to find the best strategies to address health-care equity. Read more January 1, 2010 Snohomish County Business Journal The Everett Clinic generic drug model praised The Alliance encourages other medical groups to learn how The Everett Clinic has improved health care value within its own organization by getting more patients to take generic rather than brand-name prescription drugs, when a generic alternative is readily available. Read More December 8, 2009 The Daily News Public invited to health forum Wednesday at LCCHealth care leaders from the local community and the state will present their views about the need for health care reform. Read more October 23, 2009 Puget Sound Business Journal Washington state health insurers get an exam Port Blakely Companies wants more information about health insurance companies than it can glean from their sales materials, and the Seattle timber business is about to get its wish — or at least a first crack at it. The Puget Sound Health Alliance on Oct. 23 released its first “Community Checkup” report comparing how well six local health insurers are serving business and government customers. Read more
October 16, 2009 LocalHealthGuide Checking Cholesterol Pays Long-Term Dividends We Americans are trying to cut more fat and cholesterol out of our diets. We are. We really are. But the rate of heart disease is going up and our waistlines are expanding. Each year there are 1,260,000 new and recurrent heart attacks in this country.That should get us thinking. Read more October 15, 2009 Lake Stevens Journal County gathers medical community to transform health care While the U.S. Senate on Tuesday was busy passing its health-care reform bill, more than 140 people gathered at the Lynnwood Convention Center to learn about and debate an effective health-care reform program going on right now in the Puget Sound region. Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon and Executive Director Mary McWilliams of the Puget Sound Health Alliance brought together some of our state’s best and most authoritative medical professionals and medical-care leaders under one roof. Read more October 13, 2009 Snohomish County: Executive Webcase Library Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon and Executive Director Mary McWilliams of the Puget Sound Health Alliance brought together some of our state’s best and most authoritative medical professionals and medical-care leaders under one roof. To watch the presentation and panel discussion from the Transforming Health Care Summit, click here. October 7, 2009 The Everett Herald Summit will discuss health care in Washington Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon and the Puget Sound Health Alliance are meeting for a summit Tuesday on ways to reform health care in Washington. More than 160 people from local business, government and the medical professions plan to discuss how to improve employee health and health care through keynote speakers, panel discussions and possible courses of action. Read more August 28, 2009 Group Health Scores Above Regional Average Group Health Cooperative medical centers received “above regional average” scores in 11 out of 15 quality measures in the Puget Sound Health Alliance Community Checkup. The HMO received more “above regional average” ratings than any of the other nine medical groups in the region that were rated on all 15 measures in the July report, and received no “below regional average” scores. Read more August 26, 2009 Measure Health Care to Improve It (Blog) In the Seattle area the Puget Sound Health Alliance is a group of medical professionals, insurance and pharmaceutical company personnel along with patients (consumers) joining together to take action toward making quality health care a reality for all who need it. Read more August 2009 WSMA Reports Wide Variations Among Medical Practices in Generic Prescribing The latest issue of the Community Checkup report from the Puget Sound Health Alliance shows wide variation in the care that patients receive in the Puget Sound region - the widest variation in the prescribing of generic drugs. Read more July 24, 2009 Puget Sound Business Journal 'Medical home' projects seek to cure health care Local health insurers are experimenting with changing the way doctors are paid, hoping that pilot programs will show it’s possible to improve care while also lowering its cost. Premera Blue Cross and Regence BlueCross BlueShield are testing variations of what’s called a “medical home,” under which a team of health-care professionals headed by a primary-care doctor tries to help patients with chronic diseases improve their health and stay out of the hospital. Read more July 21, 2009 Washington State Public Affairs TV Network Puget Sound Health Alliance - All Alliance Meeting Watch the Puget Sound Health Alliance present the expanded and updated report card comparing doctors and hospitals in the region at the All Alliance meeting. Hear remarks by Dr. Michael Painter, senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as well as remarks by panelists from a range of local medical clinics.
July 20, 2009 SmartBrief / PR Newswire Group Health Cooperative Scored Above Regional Average in 11 of 15 Quality Measures Group Health Cooperative medical centers received "above regional average" scores in 11 out of 15 quality measures in the Puget Sound Health Alliance Community Checkup. The Puget Sound Health Alliance is a non-profit, non-partisan regional collaborative working to improve health care quality and affordability. The Community Checkup compares care in doctors' offices and hospitals, highlighting where performance is high or improvement is needed. Read more July 19, 2009 The Everett Herald (editorial) Health Care Reform - Uninspiring Progress So Far Congress has taken its first swings at health-care reform, and they’ve been ruled foul. Not barely foul; way foul. The umpire making the call, Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf, told the Senate Budget Committee on Thursday that bills crafted by House leaders and the Senate health committee fall so short of the fundamental changes that are needed in health-care delivery that instead of reducing the increase in costs, “The curve is being raised.” Read more July 17, 2009 Health Care Finance News Puget Sound Health Alliance updates report card on local healthcare providers The Puget Sound Health Alliance in Washington has unveiled an expanded and updated report card comparing area doctors and hospitals and highlighting where improvement is needed. According to a statement by the alliance, the report highlights areas where doctors or hospitals could improve effectiveness and value of care. Read more July 16, 2009 Seattle Post-Intelligencer Online Editorial How does your clinic compare...or do you even care? New today: the latest version of the Community Checkup, a report comparing health care at clinics and hospitals around the Puget Sound. Have a look to see how your clinic measures up. This report, produced by the Puget Sound Health Alliance, looks at how health providers are doing with prevention (e.g., cancer screenings) and care for common conditions like depression, diabetes and asthma. Read more July 16, 2009 Healthcare X Prize Communities on the Move: What gets measured gets improved Recognizing that fixing what's wrong with our health care system is a moral imperative and a fiscal necessity, the Puget Sound Health Alliance has unveiled an expanded and updated the Community Checkup report comparing care in doctors offices and hospitals, highlighting where improvement is needed. For the first time, the Alliance is making the Community Checkup available for use in business decisions such as benefit design, marketing and contract discussions. Read more July 16, 2009 The Seattle Times New online comparison tool is report card for Seattle hospitals, clinics It's not quite Consumer Reports, but a Seattle nonprofit today is releasing its most sophisticated online tool yet for comparing the region's hospitals and clinics on a variety of yardsticks for quality. The report card is the third in 18 months by the Health Alliance, a coalition of employers, insurers, providers and consumers who have teamed up to promote quality and cost-effective care. Read more July 16, 2009 AboutHealthTransparency.org PSHA Releases Report Card for Seattle Hospitals, Clinics Puget Sound Health Alliance, a Seattle non profit organization, has released an online comparison tool (Community Checkup report) to facilitate comparison of the region's hospitals and clinics on quality against regional and national averages. Read more July 8, 2009 KUOW's The Conversation Health Care Professionals on Health Care Reform Dr. Pete McGough, Chief Medical Officer for the UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics, talks about health reform and the Alliance. Listen to the podcast hereJuly 3, 2009 Puget Sound Business JournalPremera Joins Rush Toward Wellness Programs Health insurers market coverage to businesses for employees who fall sick, but now more of them are selling services aimed at helping employers keep their workers well. In a sign of the times, Premera Blue Cross recently launched a for-profit affiliate called Vivacity, which is selling tailored wellness programs to employers. More insurers are offering wellness programs because the rising cost of health care is putting greater emphasis on keeping people healthy in the first place, thereby turning wellness into a growth industry. Read more June 23, 2009 Journal of the American Medical Association States Explore Shared Decision Making Health officials in Washington State are probing whether more actively involving patients in decision making will help improve patient care and satisfaction and perhaps lower costs associated with certain elective medical procedures. Read more May 2009 NRHI Newsletter Identifying Quality Disparities for Medicaid Recipients The Alliance Community Checkup report to provide performance results for clinics and medical groups in Puget Sound region now includes a multi-payer dataset with Medicaid fee-for-service data. This report was highlighted in a mailing from the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement. Read more May 2009 Seattle Business Magazine Recognizing Health Care Heroes Ron Sims, former King County Executive and current deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, won Seattle Business Magazine's Employer Achievement in Health Care award. Read more April 20, 2009 ColorsNW Healing the Health Care Wounds Last week, the ColorsNW article Not All Health Care is Created Equal examined the overwhelming ethnic disparities in the American health care systems. This week, we will explore some of the ways the health care community is combating these disparities to bring balance to the U.S. health system. Read more March 4, 2009 The Wall Street Journal Finding a Way to Ask Doctors Tough Questions Despite efforts by advocacy groups and others to empower patients, challenging a doctor or nurse on whether they are correctly doing their jobs remains downright intimidating. Signs and posters in hospitals urge us to "Speak Up" if we see a potential medical error. More nurses wear buttons these days that say "Ask Me If I've Washed My Hands." But even the most outspoken and assertive among us may suddenly turn meek when we are sick or vulnerable in a hospital, fearing that our treatment will suffer if we antagonize caregivers. Read more March 1, 2009 The Seattle Times King County's "Healthy Incentives" program relies on the power of preventive care Some King County employees spend their 30-minute lunch breaks fast-walking on trails. Others attend Weight Watchers meetings or talk to anti-smoking counselors. Many track the amount of fruits and vegetables they eat or the steps they take each day. And one — information-tech worker Laura McCollum Wallace — leads her co-workers in free belly-dancing classes. What has prompted this health-conscious workplace culture? Read more February 25, 2009 Healthcare Town Hall Jim Schibanoff, Ron Sims, and Mike Kreidler give their final thoughts at Healthcare Town Hall A discussion of electronic health records. Read moreFebruary 21, 2009 Seattle/Local Health Guide Sound Health: Affairs of the heart The first of a monthly column by Alliance Consultant Dr. Lori Whttaker. In this month's column, she writes about steps you can take to keep your heart healthy. Read more February 18, 2009 Everett Herald Editorial Our region innovates again Our corner of the world has long been on the leading edge of health care innovation. One outstanding example is the Puget Sound Health Alliance, a partnership of the key players in health care -- doctors, hospitals, patients, employers, unions, health plans and others -- which was founded four years ago to increase the quality and value of health care. It's finding success by measuring health-care strategies, reporting on their results and working to reward good outcomes. Read more November 17, 2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial Board Community Checkup: Room to Improve The Puget Sound Health Alliance has unveiled a "community checkup" report that tracks whether local residents are being treated according to best practices nationally in such critical areas as diabetes, asthma and heart conditions. It's a particularly useful tool for health care professionals, who are genuinely interested in doing their best, but it also has implications for consumers, employers and the region generally. Read more November 17, 2008 American Nurses Association SmartBrief Report: Seattle-area medical treatment varies widely Hospitals and clinics across the Puget Sound region were inconsistent in their care of certain medical conditions, including eye exams for diabetic patients and blood clot prevention for heart surgery patients, according to a "Community Checkup" report from the Puget Sound Health Alliance. Read more November 14, 2008 Seattle Times Medical care varies widely at area clinics and hospitals A new report shows the quality of medical care varies widely among Puget Sound-area clinics and hospitals, and many patients fail to get standard treatments for diabetes, heart surgery and other health problems. Read more November 14, 2008 Seattle/LocalHealthGuide Quality of health care varies widely in the region, report says Many patients in the Puget Sound region are not getting the health care recommended by national guidelines, according to a new study. The study also found that quality of care in the region varies widely from hospital to hospital, from clinic to clinic, and even from provider to provider within same medical group or institution. Read more November 14, 2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer Comparing local clinics, hospitals: new online tool A new free service comparing health care at clinics and hospitals in King, Pierce, Snohomish, Thurston and Kitsap counties is now online. The Puget Sound Health Alliance yesterday unveiled its "Community Checkup" report on healthcare performance in the region. Read more October 29, 2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer Doctors in Study Prefer Whites to Blacks: UW Researchers Take a Look at Physician BiasesRacial disparities have long been documented in health care, but a University of Washington study on doctors' possible biases is validating the feelings of many African-American patients. Released Tuesday, the study found that most doctors unconsciously prefer white people to black people. The exception was black doctors, who exhibited no preference for either race. Read more
August 2008 Managed Healthcare Executive Delivering Information - AHRQ Drives Quality in ContextBecause there are so few methods to funnel new intelligence into the healthcare system, valuable discoveries have the risk of going unnoticed and unused. The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is tasked with a mission to gather research and disseminate valuable findings to those who can translate information into practice. (See section on the Alliance on the last page of the article.) Read more
August 25, 2008 Healthcare IT News Puget Sound Health Alliance Gears Up for Second Local Provider Report Card The Puget Sound Health Alliance is set to release a second local provider report card to the public in November. Read moreAugust 24, 2008 Federal Telemedicine News Grants Awarded plus RFP Issued The Regence Foundation recently awarded the Puget Sound Health Alliance $50,000 to create a web-based portal to deliver performance results to Puget Sound area clinics. The funding will enable the performance reports to be valuable tools to refine clinical improvement processes, identify and start new patient support programs, and guide overall quality improvements. Read moreJuly 13, 2008 The Olympian Prescriptions for Health InformationThe Puget Sound Health Alliance is partnering with several organizations in the South Sound on a pilot program around prescriptions for health information. Read more
June 6, 2008 Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) Health Alliance lands $1M grant for patient initiativesThe nonprofit Puget Sound Health Alliance has landed $1 million in grants for initiatives to improve health care in Washington, which if effective could slash medical costs by many millions of dollars. The grants flow from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a Princeton, N.J., philanthropic organization aiming to improve health care for all Americans. Read more June 5, 2008 The Seattle Times (editorial) Moving toward smarter health-care decisions Amid the political promises about sweeping health-care reform, the Puget Sound Health Alliance is tackling the real nitty-gritty of reform — and has earned more resources to keep doing it. Impressed enough with its previous investment in the alliance, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation today is announcing another grant of $1 million over the next three years so the alliance can continue collaborative work with health-care providers, insurers, employers and other community members. Read more June 5, 2008 Seattle Post Intelligencer Millions granted to improve health care: Puget Sound area part of 14-site collaborationOn the heels of a nationwide study pointing to major discrepancies in patient care in hospitals across the U.S., the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation pledged $1 million to the Puget Sound Health Alliance to help improve health care quality. Read more June 5, 2008 The Seattle Times Grant to Puget Sound Health Alliance will target health inequities The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced it will give the Puget Sound Health Alliance more than $1 million and significant technical assistance as part of a $300 million initiative to improve health quality in 14 communities around the country. Read more May 2, 2008 Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) McWilliams to Head Health Alliance Mary McWilliams has been named executive director of the Puget Sound Health Alliance. The nonprofit corporation was formed in late 2004 to research how to improve both health and health care in the Puget Sound region. McWilliams is currently president of Regence BlueShield in Washington and also is a past board chair of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce. She replaces the first executive director, Margaret Stanley, who is retiring. March 31, 2008 King County Sims Receives National Award for Health Reform The groundbreaking health care reform initiatives of King County Executive Ron Sims have been recognized with a prestigious national award. The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), a Washington, D.C. non-profit and a leader in advancing health care quality, has tapped Sims for its 2008 Health Quality Award for his work founding the Puget Sound Health Alliance and pioneering the county's employee wellness initiative. Sims is joined in this national recognition by Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arkansas Surgeon General Joseph Thompson. Link to story March 21, 2008 KPLU 88.5 FM Tracking Quality Health Care Sharing information in the digital-age seems like an easy task. But the health care industry is still catching up. That's the assessment from the nation's top health official. But one local initiative has caught the fed's attention. KPLU Health & Science reporter Gary Davis explains. Link to story February 12, 2008 The Everett Herald (editorial) Practical Prescriptions for Health Care Reform No single remedy will cure all that ails our health care system. Rather, each of health care's stakeholders -- that's all of us, folks, institutions and individuals -- must take sensible, incremental steps toward improving the quality of care and containing costs. Read more February 6, 2008 Journal for Healthcare Quality Web Exclusives Healthcare data pooling: Coming soon to a community near you? Everyone can agree that quality healthcare is a good thing. But how do we go about measuring quality? Intrepid organizations in Massachusetts, Minnesota, Washington, and Wisconsin are answering the call for measurable quality metrics by developing data-pooling operations that can report on healthcare quality. Read more February 6, 2008 The Seattle Times (editorial) A Path to Better Health While state and federal elected officials are planning major surgery on the nation's health-care system, a local group is starting with a shrewder approach: taking the patient's temperature. The Puget Sound Health Alliance last week released "Community Checkup," its first report on the effectiveness of the health care people are getting compared to the best, most cost-efficient practices. Read more February 2, 2008 King County Television Community Checkup Media Briefing View streaming video of the unveiling of the first Community Checkup report at the Puget Sound Health Alliance media briefing on January 31, 2008. February 1, 2008 The Puget Sound Business Journal Alliance: We have work to do on patients' care New data produced by the Puget Sound Health Alliance about how well doctors in the Puget Sound region care for patients give everyone a tool to improve health care - and thereby hold down surging medical costs, which have been hammering employers and governments alike. Read more February 1, 2008 The Associated Press Report: Puget Sound WA Patients Missing Preventative Checkups A report released today says about 20 percent of heart disease or diabetes patients in the Puget Sound did not have their cholesterol checked at least once a year. The Seattle-based Puget Sound Health Alliance produced the report. Read more Feburary 1, 2008 The Tacoma News Tribune Report Card Grades Region’s Health Care Clinics About three years ago, Puget Sound-area business and government leaders came together to figure out ways to save on health insurance by keeping their employees healthy. With the help of the medical community, they formed a group called the Puget Sound Health Alliance, and started crunching data from employees’ health insurance claims – which record what kind of care they get – to determine where improvements could be made. The goal was to see how often patients got the treatments that experts at the National Institutes of Health and elsewhere said they should receive to stay as healthy as possible. The group’s first annual report card came out Thursday. It analyzed outpatient claims data for 1.6 million people in Pierce, Thurston, King, Kitsap and Snohomish counties, and concluded that there’s room for improvement. Read more Feburary 1, 2008 The Olympian Report Points Out Ways Health Care Can Improve Up to one-fifth of patients in the Puget Sound area who need regular cholesterol screenings for diabetes or heart disease are falling through the cracks, a new report says. "Some of us are not getting the care we need," said Dr. David Fleming, chairman of the board of the private, nonprofit Puget Sound Health Alliance, which produced the study. The report was designed to identify gaps in the region's health care system and to suggest where improvements need to be made. Read more February 1, 2008 The Seattle Times First Check-Up for Area's Clinics After years of work, lots of fanfare and a plentiful dose of disagreement, a collaboration by employers, health insurers, unions and medical providers around Puget Sound has produced a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive comparison of the medical care performed at 14 different clinic systems in the Puget Sound area. Read more February 1, 2008 The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Local Health Care 'Checkup' Finds Room For Improvement: Survey looked at patients, clinics in 5 counties In an effort to identify areas in local health care that need improving, the Puget Sound Health Alliance conducted a "community checkup" of 1.6 million patients, finding that many measures were below standard. Results of that checkup were released Thursday, with alliance members calling the findings a baseline to begin changing care for the better. Read more January 21, 2008 The Seattle Times (editorial) Nibbling at the Edges of Health Care Kate Riley highlights the efforts of the Alliance to improve quality and reduce costs in the Puget Sound region. Read more December 2007 The Cornerstone Profile of a Community Leader: Puget Sound Health Alliance The Alliance is profiled as the first Value-driven Health Care Community Leader. Read moreJanuary 4, 2007 Seattle Post Intelligencer Federal recognition for Puget Sound Health Alliance The Puget Sound Health Alliance on Wednesday was named the first organization in the country to become a part of a national network aimed at providing affordable health care and improving patient care. Read More January 3, 2007 PR Newswire HHS Secretary Recognizes Puget Sound Health Alliance as First "Community Leader" in National Network HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt today issued formal recognition of the Puget Sound Health Alliance as part of an expanded network of regioin-based organizations focused on improving the quality of health care while reducing health care cost inflation. Read More January 3, 2007 Puget Sound Business Journal State, U.S. to launch new health-care effortTogether with six similar organizations elsewhere, the Puget Sound Health Alliance will form the beginning of a national network of local organizations that will use standardized measures to assess the quality of care delivered by physicians and hospitals and will then publically report the results. Read MoreJanuary 25, 2006 Progressive Policy Institute September 5, 2005 Puget Sound Business Journal Embarking on a bold health-care experiment If the recently formed Puget Sound Health Alliance manages to accomplish anything truly significant, the reason may lie with who's been hired to lead it. Two seasoned and highly regarded health-care experts have been chosen to lead the alliance, which aims to improve medical care and tame medical inflation in the Puget Sound region. Read more. July 29, 2005 Puget Sound Business Journal Taking Control Puget Sound Health Alliance Chairman and King County Executive Ron Sims and Alliance Board member and VP of Benefits at Washington Mutual Mike Cochran recently participated in a City Club luncheon panel on innovations in health care. Highlights of the luncheon panel were featured in an article in The Puget Sound Business Journal. the Alliance was mentioned in an additional Puget Sound Business Journal article on evidence-based medicine.
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