53 upstate New York hospitals earned more than 21 million dollars in quality improvement incentive funding from Excellus BlueCross BlueShield.
The payments were part of the health insurer's Hospital Performance Incentive Program. In the past three years, quality performance incentives from Excellus BlueCross BlueShield have exceeded $61 million dollars.
Nine hospitals in the Finger Lakes Region participated in the program including Clifton Springs, Rochester General, Strong Memorial and Unity Hospital.
Carrie Frank is Vice President of Quality and Health Informatics. She says, "By having a portion of the payments we make to hospitals applied to quality, we're assuring the attention and focus on driving quality to higher levels in our area hospitals is getting the attention inside those organizations that it deserves."
Blue Cross and Blue Shield's Hospital Performance Incentive Program was launched in 2004 and evaluates participating hospitals on more than 300 performance measures. The four target areas include clinical outcomes, patient safety, patient satisfaction and efficiency.