New Quality, Payment Initiative Positively Impacts Pediatric Care

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts' Alternative Quality Contract (AQC) had a small but significant positive effect on the quality of pediatric care within two years of implementation.

This is according to a new study from Boston Children's Hospital. The results were published online Dec. 23 in Pediatrics.

Common Genetic Pathway Found for Pediatric Tumor Treatment
At Johns Hopkins, investigators have found a known genetic pathway to be active in many difficult-to-treat pediatric brain tumors called low-grade gliomas, potentially offering a new target for the treatment of these cancers.

To stem the continued growth in health care spending, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts—the state's largest commercial payer—implemented an AQC in 2009. A prototypical arrangement, the AQC offers providers a baseline budget to cover the continuum of care, while also awarding pay-for-performance bonuses for improved care quality metrics. This AQC was unique for including pediatric quality measures in its contract.

"Because the size and spending levels of the adult population are so much greater than for kids, how large health care contracts affect pediatric patients is often treated as an afterthought," says the study's lead author Alyna Chien, MD, from Boston Children's Division of General Pediatrics. "But children, especially those with chronic or severe medical conditions, can contribute significantly to health care costs. If spending is to be contained, it's important to understand the impact of the AQC on children as well as adults."

Researchers compared the quality and cost of care provided to 126,975 cases within the AQC structure against 415,331 similar patients who were not in the AQC, across a study period from 2006 to 2010. Quality measures tied to pay-for-performance rates of preventive/screening care and acute care were analyzed, as was care of asthma and attention deficit disorder, which were not directly tied to bonuses.

Now Pediatric Eye Cancer is Easier to Detect
Can parents use smart phones and digital cameras to potentially screen their kids for the most common form of pediatric eye cancer?

"We examined whether the AQC affected asthma and ADHD care in an unintended fashion, since they are the two most common chronic conditions of childhood," says Chien. "A better understanding of the effect of the AQC on their care and cost could provide much needed insight into how similar pediatric physical or behavioral health conditions are affected."

After analyzing and aggregating all data, the researchers found the AQC had a small yet significant positive effect on preventive and acute care quality when tied to pay-for-performance models. Children with chronic illness experienced higher quality gains (up 1.8 percent) than children without chronic illness (up 1.2 percent). The AQC had no effect on quality measures not tied to the pay-for-performance model, nor did it have an effect on reducing overall health care costs for children.