Consider

• The top insurance companies in Maine are developing programs that provide incentives for quality care.
• In various congressional hearings, a consistent message is being heard that the health care system must change. One of the integral components: the system must provide rewards for the provision of quality care.
• Maine employers are getting involved in quality health care. Besides initiatives at their place of business, they have formed the Maine Health Management Coalition and are beginning to reward providers who can prove that they are providing quality care and posting this data on their internet site.
• A material component of the new Dirigo Health Plan involves quality review and collection of quality data. These actions suggest an increased focus on quality and eventually weighted payment.
• We spend more of our Gross Domestic Product on Health Care than any other nation in the world and yet we cannot prove our quality is any better and some would argue that it is even worse than these other countries.
• How organized is your Quality Effort?

While today the above incentives make up a small percentage of overall reimbursement, if the development pace of these incentives continues it will become difficult for health care providers to compete if they can't manage their data and prove their quality. Proof of quality processes and outcomes will be required for reimbursement, regulatory and community relations goals. Delaying preparations will place practices at a disadvantage.