Community effort in health care merits financial, quality rewards
McMinnville—The State of Oregon has awarded Yamhill Community Care Organization (Yamhill CCO) $1,137,005 for meeting incentive and state measures of quality performance. Based on the final Health System Transformation 2013 progress report, YCCO met the benchmark or improvement targets on 14.8 of 17 Coordinated Care Organization (CCO) quality measures for the 2013 calendar year.
Yamhill CCO administers the Oregon Health Plan within the Yamhill County geographic area, serving contiguous zip codes and more than 19,000 OHP members.
“Yamhill CCO has been a community effort since the beginning”, says Jim Rickards, MD, Yamhill CCO Health Strategy Officer. “These results show the work of the great partnerships being developed between medical and behavioral health providers along with other community partners and Yamhill CCO members.”
As part of the state’s health care transformation strategy, the Oregon Health Authority held back 2 percent of the monthly payments to the CCOs throughout the state. These funds were deposited jointly into a “quality pool.” CCOs could earn the final 2 percent of the funds if they met 12 of 17 key health care measures and at least 60 percent of their membership was enrolled in patient-centered primary care homes. Yamhill CCO was one of 10 CCOs to quality for full payment, and currently ranks number 2 in the overall number of measures it has met.
“This is an important milestone for our community,” said Silas Halloran-Steiner, chairman of the Yamhill CCO board of directors. “The providers in our community should be commended for the hard work they do each day to meet the state’s quality measures; Yamhill CCO members should be congratulated for taking responsibility for their own health.”
According to Oregon’s Health System Transformation 2013 performance report, CCO efforts across the state are resulting in large improvements. Emergency department visits by OHP members have decreased by 17 percent, hospitalization for chronic health conditions is down by 27 percent, developmental screening during the first 36 months of life has increased by 58 percent and enrollment in patient-centered primary care homes has increased by 52 percent.
“I’m glad our community, and other communities across the state, have come together to produce these results, improve the care delivered to our members and show the great work we can do locally,” Rickards says. “And this is only the beginning!”
- For more information about this story, contact Jim Rickards.
- For more information about Yamhill County Care Organization, contact Jim Carlough, jcarlough@yamhillcco.org.
- Kristian Foden-Vencil and Geoff Norcross discuss the statewide quality effort by CCOs on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s “Vital Signs.”