For the first time, Kentucky employers purchasing healthcare benefits have aligned behind a set of core measures to drive improvements in prevention, behavioral health, and chronic disease care, with a focus on cost, utilization, and experience. The new Purchaser Priorities are taken from the latest Kentucky Core Healthcare Measures Set (KCHMS) released in June.
The KCHMS is developed by the KHC in partnership with healthcare consumers, providers, payers, and purchasers to develop a set of core measures to drive improvement related to healthcare costs, quality, and equity. The goals of the purchaser priorities are to 1) improve the quality, value, and equity of care and 2) align Kentucky’s provider incentives across payers.
The 11 Purchaser Priorities are:
- Breast Cancer Screening
- Colorectal Cancer Screening
- Adults’ Access to Preventive/Ambulatory Health Services
- Screening for Clinical Depression and Follow Up Plan
- Tobacco Use: Screening and Cessation Intervention
- Use of Opioids from Multiple Providers
- Comprehensive Diabetes Care: Hemoglobin (HbA1c) Poor Control (>9.0%)
- Controlling High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)
- Mental Health Utilization
- Plan All-Cause Readmissions
- Total Cost of Care Population-based PMPM Index
As purchasers of healthcare, employers have a unique ability to drive change through contracting for transparency in data to best understand areas where improvement has been made or needs to be made. The KHC is working with a local health plan to develop a value-based contracting arrangement based on the Purchaser Priorities for its members and a set of strategies to help employers implement their focus on these 11 measures.
