Impact of Pay-for-Performance Contracts and Network Registry on Diabetes and Asthma HEDIS® Measures in an Integrated Delivery Network

This article reviews the experience of a large, heterogeneous integrated delivery network that incorporated physician quality metrics into pay-for-performance contracts. The authors present criteria for including measures in pay-for-performance contracts and offer a practical approach to determining withhold return or bonus distribution based on improvement and performance. They demonstrate interventions undertaken to improve performance, including the development of a claims-based registry. Empirical data show that the network performance improved more than the comparable state and national performance during the period of this observational study. The authors conclude that pay for-performance contracts led to development of medical management programs including a claims-based registry and nonphysician interventions, which helped significantly improve selected HEDIS scores.