The North East Business Group on Health (NEBGH) -- formerly known as New York Business Group on Health (NYBGH) -- created a physician performance measurement and reporting initiative in 2006 to increase physician awareness of individual performance rates through a series of reports. The New York Quality Alliance (NYQA) utilized health plans’ claims data to evaluate performance on six preventive and diabetes-focused HEDIS measures to increase transparency about physicians’ quality performance. Initially, the initiative focused on distributing HEDIS performance reports to over 800 physicians in the Manhattan area.

By 2007, the project expanded to include New York City, Long Island, Orange, Rockland and Westchester Counties, and Northern and Central NJ, providing reports to over 3,500 physicians. Approximately ten percent of the physicians provided feedback about the reports to NYBGH.

In 2008, NYBGH distributed reports to over 7,500 physicians in New York and New Jersey. Since 2008, NYBGH continued to produce physician reports, but limited the distribution to north and central New Jersey due to a project merger wit the NYQA.

In late 2007, NYQA received a grant from the New York State Health Foundation to participate in a process to verify health plan data in a statewide effort to promote transparency about measurement methodologies. Physicians had the ability to provide correct data, which contributed to the physician performance measurement and reporting objectives of transparency and collaboration.

It is essential to engage and have support from all stakeholders in the physician performance measurement and reporting process. The next steps for this initiative include providing data results to consumers, including hospital and physician performance information.

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