LITTLE ROCK - Arkansas Medicaid awarded more than $4.5 million in performance bonus payments to 26 Arkansas hospitals as part of the annual Inpatient Quality Incentive (IQI) program. Individual hospitals were recognized at an awards ceremony during the annual Arkansas Medicaid Educational Conference luncheon in Little Rock.
Arkansas Medicaid, the Arkansas Hospital Association and AFMC worked together to develop the IQI, which has earned national attention for its innovative involvement with the health care community. IQI reflects a growing movement toward rewarding hospitals for commitment to quality and providing evidence-based care to their patients.
Since the IQI program began in 2007, Arkansas Medicaid has awarded nearly $40 million to hospitals based on their successful performance in improving the quality of health care and patient outcomes that align with Arkansas Medicaid’s clinical priorities.
Nationally standardized quality measures are selected by the IQI advisory committee, which is comprised of staff from hospitals, Arkansas Medicaid, AFMC and the AHA. Hospitals participating in IQI are required to collect and submit data on quality measures; data is independently verified. Hospitals must meet specific quality goals for at least 80 percent of eligible measures in order to receive bonus payments, which are adjusted annually to continually improve quality.
During 2016, this pay-for-performance program focused on quality measures that resulted in the following:
• Elective deliveries of babies before 39 weeks’ gestation have declined among Medicaid beneficiaries more than 97 percent since the baseline data collections in the fall of 2009.
• Exclusive breast milk feeding at hospital discharge has increased 31 percent since the initial baseline measurement in 2011; Medicaid beneficiaries now have a rate of 33.35 percent.
• Low-risk Caesarian sections among first-time mothers have declined 21 percent statewide with a current Medicaid beneficiary rate of 22.36 percent. This rate is below the national Healthy People 2020 benchmark for a second year.
• Screening hospital in-patients for tobacco use now occurs about 99 percent of the time. Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of premature disease and death in the United States.
• Patients identified as tobacco product users are offered or provided practical counseling to quit and FDA-approved cessation medications.
