Healthcare Finance Review reports WellPoint will be using a healthcare product created Zagat to allow consumers to rate their overall experience with their doctors, but will not be tied to reimbursement levels. WellPoint plans to launch the rating system among its some 35,000 members using Blue Cross and/or Blue Shield subsidiaries in metropolitan Los Angeles, Connecticut and greater Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio markets.

A new Ohio bill, which pertains to physicians, hospitals, outpatient clinics and ambulance services, would require health plans to provide an updated source of rate information and an online system for checking patient coverage, reports FierceHealthcare. It would also make health plans provide a plain-language summary of terms in contracts.

Healthcare IT News reports on the results of a quality pilot involving a collaborative of 44 pediatric practices. The quality initiative demonstrated improved care for nearly 14,000 children with asthma.

The practices comprising Ohio Valley Primary Care Associates, an IPA affiliated with the physician-hospital organization at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, also benefited from the pay-for-performance program linked to the initiative.

The following is a summary of legislation by state regarding the disclosure by hospitals of their hospital infection rates.

Arkansas

In August 2006 an Ohio state law was passed that required all hospitals within the state to report data on performance measures by April 2007 to a state Web site and to report average charges for their top 60 outpatient procedures by May 2007. Hospitals previously were required to report average charges and volumes for their top 100 inpatient procedures -- information that is now also available on the Web site. The state health director selected a new set of performance measures developed or endorsed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) or the National Quality Forum (NQF). In addition, hospitals are now required to post on their Web sites a price list with charges for room, board and other items.

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield has expanded its medical cost comparison tool to Ohio, Kentucky and all of Indiana. A previous blog on this site (4/30) outlined Anthem BCBS's inital launch of their online comparison tool in Central Indiana as part of the push to provide consumers with price, quality information for medical care. Anthem BCBS will continue to expand its transparency tool pilot program to new markets, a move that reflects the growing consumer-directed healthcare trend.