Wisconsin Health Information Organization Partners With Ingenix to Create Statewide Health Care Data Source

Will Enable Analysis and Improvement in Health Care Quality and Costs

Eden Prairie, Minn. – Ingenix, a leading health information, technology and consulting company, announced today that it will collaborate with the Wisconsin Health Information Organization (WHIO) to create a statewide repository of health claims data in Wisconsin. WHIO will report on the quality of care, measured against evidence-based treatment guidelines enabling Wisconsin health care provider groups to benchmark their results against their peers. This initiative will also provide insight for employers and consumers on the value of health care services in the state.

“At the direction of WHIO, Ingenix will use its decision support technology and analytic expertise to help offer meaningful quality and cost comparisons of episodes of care, based on broad and deep data from health plans, employers and provider systems,” said John Stenson, managing principal of Ingenix’s consulting business. “Physicians can use this information to help enhance the quality of the care they provide, while employers and consumers will have the knowledge needed to make smarter purchasing decisions. This is an example of how the right information in the right place can drive better health care results for hundreds of thousands of people.”

Julie Bartels, executive director of WHIO, said, “Our reports will measure treatment received for a variety of health conditions against national standards for care endorsed by leading organizations such as the National Quality Forum, the National Committee for Quality Assurance and AQA, formerly the Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance. Provider groups can use this data to evaluate their own performance and identify areas of excellence and opportunities for improvement.”

Initially, five commercial insurers and the Wisconsin Medicaid program will provide data to the repository. WHIO also is encouraging other regional health care providers and payers to contribute their data, increasing the value of the reports for Wisconsin physicians, employers and consumers. The data collection and reporting processes will comply with all privacy regulations.

Pilot reports from the WHIO database are scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2009, with a broader rollout later in the year.