<em>Health Affairs</em> Article On Alternative Quality Contract Named AcademyHealth Article Of The Year

Abstract

Health Affairs is honored that one of our articles has been chosen by AcademyHealth as its article of the year. "The ‘Alternative Quality Contract,’ Based On A Global Budget, Lowered Medical Spending And Improved Quality," by Zirui Song of Harvard Medical School and coauthors, was published as a Web First on July 11, 2012, and included in the August 2012 issue of Health Affairs. The Song article will be discussed tomorrow at a session of AcademyHealth's Annual Research Meeting. To mark the occasion, we have made the full text of the article freely available to all readers through Sunday, June 30, 2013. Song's study provides valuable information as the United States is attempting to move from a fee-for-service health system that pays for quantity toward one that pays for quality. The researchers examined the results of the Massachusetts Blue Cross Blue Shield Alternative Quality Contract (AQC), a multiyear contract that began with seven provider organizations in 2009; an additional four organizations joined in 2010. The AQC paid providers using a global budget, similar to some Accountable Care Organizations formed under the Accountable Care Act. The authors found that savings in total medical spending associated with the Alternative Quality Contract were 1.9 percent in the first year and 3.3 percent in the second year. Savings were achieved through lower prices from shifting procedures, imaging, and tests to providers with lower fees and through reduced utilization among some groups. Song and his colleagues also analyzed the effect of the AQC on quality of care, finding that improvements in chronic care management, adult preventive care, and pediatric care were larger in the second year than in the first year.