Blue Shield Awards $31M in Pay-for-Performance Bonuses
Blue Shield of California on Monday announced that it is awarding $31 million in bonuses to physician groups and independent practice associations in the state as part of a pay-for-performance program that rewards quality health care, the San Francisco Business Times reports.
That is the same amount awarded last year through the foundation's pay-for-performance program (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 8/14).
About half of the payments are part of the Integrated Healthcare Association pay-for-performance program that rewards providers for higher quality services in areas such as clinical care, patient experience and IT use.
Blue Shield said it used the IHA standards to track physician organization performance on clinical factors, such as the immunization status of children in their care, control of HbA1c levels for patients with diabetes and use of appropriate medications by asthma patients (Pizzi, Healthcare IT News, 8/14).