The Connecticut Office of Health Strategy (OHS) launched Healthscore CT, an online tool to help consumers, businesses, and healthcare providers compare the cost and quality of medical care at Connecticut hospitals and provider networks.
The website has two major components: a quality scorecard and a cost estimator that is scheduled to be released at the end of September 2019.
The quality scorecard uses national standard measures endorsed by the National Quality Forum (NQF) and consumer experience measures derived from Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) consumer surveys. It employs a five-star system to rate healthcare organizations on 30 health measures as determined by the State Innovation Model Quality Council—an advisory body made up of consumer advocates, providers, community organizations, state agencies, and payers. The health measures cover 10 areas including behavioral health, child health, women’s health, chronic conditions, and preventive health. Using interactive tables and graphs, the provider networks may be compared to other networks and to the state average for any given health measure (like diabetes or asthma) or an overall rating that measures its performance against all networks on all quality measures.
The scorecard uses information from nearly 465,000 patients of 19 accountable care organizations throughout Connecticut; individual scores may be based on fewer patients, but not fewer than 30 patients. Consumer experience scores are not based on fewer than 50 patients. Connecticut is among the first states to develop a rating system that measures the performance of provider networks rather than individual providers.
When launched in September, the cost estimator tool will pull information from the All-Payer Claims Database (APCD) to allow users to see the cost of a specific procedure by a specific healthcare organization. Connecticut General Statute 19a-755a (2018) requires OHS to use the APCD to collect, assess, and report healthcare information relating to safety, quality, cost effectiveness, and access for all levels of healthcare. All Connecticut regulated insurers and pharmacy benefit managers are required to submit health insurance claims to the APCD.
Read more:
- HealthScore CT: https://healthscorect.com/
