Tufts Health Plan donated $500,000 to Massachusetts Health Quality Partners, a 12-year-old nonprofit attempting to create new ways to measure physicians' performance.
The gift, the largest ever by the insurer, is intended to accelerate the partnership's work and establish Tufts as a force for improving healthcare quality, the insurer said.
"We've been very involved in trying to control costs, but we've all along said the other side of that is improving and assuring the quality of the healthcare our members and all patients receive," said James Roosevelt Jr., Tufts chief executive. "This is putting our money where our mouth is."
Barbra Rabson, executive director of the health partnership, said the gift would help the group develop new ways to measure doctors' performance. Some of the organization's results are posted on its website, mhqp.org.
"I want to provide more measures that are meaningful and actionable," said Rabson. "For physicians, I want to give them more information in a way that's more helpful."
Massachusetts Health Quality Partners brings doctors, insurers, employers, and regulators together to develop performance measures that all parties agree are valid. Those measures can then be used by doctors seeking to improve their performance compared to peers, and by consumers who want to become more involved in their medical care.
Currently, the organization only posts measurements for physician practices, not individual doctors. In addition, the measurements are narrow. For instance, measures of physician practices' records in preventive medicine only show how they rank in performing colorectal cancer screening for patients older than 50.
"Measurement is in its early stages," said Rabson.
Jeffrey Krasner can be reached at krasner@globe.com.
