Clinical Excellence

October 12, 2007

IHA Names Permanente Medical Groups Top Performers in All Kaiser Permanente California Service Areas

The Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA) recently named Southern California Permanente Medical Group and The Permanente Medical Group physicians as top performers at all 27 Kaiser Permanente medical centers in California. The IHA recognized only 47 of the 235 California physicians' groups that participated in its pay-for-performance program in 2006 as top-performing medical groups, representing the top 20 percent in the state.

For the second year running, Southern California Permanente Medical Group physicians received IHA top-performer awards at all 12 Kaiser Permanente Southern California medical centers. The Permanente Medical Group physicians in the Northern California region received IHA top-performer awards at all 15 Northern California service areas this year, up from their five top-performer awards last year.

The IHA bases top-performer status on high performance in important health care quality measures, including clinical quality (50 percent), patient experience (30 percent), and information technology (20 percent). Key areas of focus include chronic care management, preventive care, and the use of information technology to support patient management and care.

Participating medical groups report improvements over the prior year, including:

• 60,000 more women screened for cervical cancer
• 12,000 more people tested for diabetes
• 30,000 more childhood immunizations given

Serving more than 6 million members in California and about 8.7 million members nationwide, Kaiser Permanente entered IHA's program in 2004. The IHA's pay-for-performance measures are used to help determine incentive payments from health plans to physician groups based on performance. While the Permanente Medical Groups participate in the IHA program, they do not receive compensation or financial incentives based on IHA results.

Permanente Medical Group physicians received IHA awards at these 27 Kaiser Permanente medical centers and service areas:

Southern California Permanente Medical Group

• Baldwin Park (Los Angeles County)
• Bellflower (Los Angeles County)
• Fontana (San Bernardino County)
• Kern County (Bakersfield)
• Los Angeles
• Orange County
• Panorama City (Los Angeles County)
• Riverside (Riverside County)
  
• San Diego
  
• South Bay (Los Angeles County
  
• West Los Angeles
  
• Woodland Hills (Los Angeles County)

The Permanente Medical Group

• Diablo Service Area (Contra Costa and eastern Alameda counties)
  
• East Bay (Oakland-Richmond)
  
• Fresno
  
• Greater Southern Alameda Area (southern Alameda County)
  
• Marin County
  
• Napa/Solano Counties
  
• Redwood City (San Mateo County)
  
• San Francisco
  
• Northern Santa Clara County
  
• San Jose/Gilroy (southern Santa Clara County)
  
• South San Francisco
  
• San Joaquin Valley (Stockton/Modesto/Tracy)
  
• Sacramento/Roseville
  
• Santa Rosa
  
• South Sacramento

For more information, read the Integrated Healthcare Association's news release.