CCO evaluation project hits first milestone

Portland, Oregon November 17, 2014—In October, the Consumer Confidence Project (CCP) gathered preliminary data from publically available sources on how Oregon’s sixteen coordinated care organizations (CCOs) reach out to their members.

“Coordinated Care Organizations and health system transformation is a grand Oregon experiment. The Oregon Health Authority and CMS have defined quite a few metrics that are intended to measure health system outcomes and quality. For our project, we wanted to look at the experience of transformation from the consumer perspective,” says Bob Brown, a CCP spokesman.

“Our first effort in this kind of evaluation was based on publicly available information from all CCO websites and member handbooks. This is what consumers would see. From this evaluation, we hope that CCOs can learn from each other and provide information that enables their members to use their systems in the best possible ways,” Brown explains.

During two data collection sessions in October, volunteers reviewed the member handbooks and websites of each CCO, checking to see whether key pieces of consumer-oriented information were included in these materials. Those pieces of information, called indicators, characterize a CCO’s customer focus in four domains: accessibility of information, transparency of governance, responsiveness to CCO members and communities, and person-centered services.

An independent group conceived the project two years ago and formed a steering committee to plan and staff the project, housed in the Oregon Public Health Institute.

In September 2014, the steering committee selected nine individuals from around the state to serve on the Analysis and Review Council (ARC), an advisory committee that provides informed and independent feedback on the indicators and the methods. At its November meeting, the ARC considered how to weight indicators in each of the four domains.

During the fall, CCP staff will compile and analyze this data. The CCP’s first evaluation will be published in 2015.

For more information, send inquiries to the project manager: David.Spencer.B@gmail.com.