November 20, 2006

Updated Online Tool Helps Employers Calculate Savings from Improved Health Care Quality

Quality Dividend Calculator projects sick days and lost productivity; helps employers, purchasers quantify health care value

WASHINGTON -- A new version of the free, online Quality Dividend Calculator (QDC) from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) demonstrates that choosing high-quality health plans frequently results in lower health care costs and improved worker productivity. The QDC was recently updated with new data about clinical performance, disease prevalence, employee wages and other information that help determine the return on investment when purchasers choose to contract with high-quality plans.

The Quality Dividend Calculator uses NCQA Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) quality data to estimate the number of sick days and lost productivity resulting from illness. Employers can plug in unique information about their company and receive detailed estimates of potential savings. The QDC provides summary data showing how effectively various plans treat prevalent, high-cost illnesses such as diabetes, asthma, and cardiac issues; in doing so, the tool offers users a means to determine which plan in their area represents the best value.

“When it comes to health care, better is often less expensive. That’s a concept that runs counter to most people’s everyday experience. The QDC makes the business case for quality in terms that everyone can understand—dollars and cents,” said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane. “Choosing a high-quality plan makes a meaningful impact on the bottom line in terms of both cost and productivity. That’s what the QDC shows.”

The QDC considers the following health conditions, each of which has a substantial indirect cost when poorly treated or cared for: alcohol dependency and substance abuse, asthma, chicken pox, depression, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and smoking.

The direct and indirect cost projections generated by the QDC are based on plans’ HEDIS scores. HEDIS is a set of standardized performance measures used by most health plans to see how effectively they treat various clinical issues such as controlling heart attack patients’ blood pressure and cholesterol. Users who have access to two or more plans’ HEDIS scores can make side-by-side comparisons, or use pre-loaded data to compare an “average” health plan to a high-performing health plan. 

Purchasers of NCQA’s Quality Compass also have access to a specialized copy of the QDC that allows them to run comparisons between two health plans.

NCQA’s Quality Dividend Calculator is available at www.ncqacalculator.com.

NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations, recognizes physicians and physician groups in key clinical areas and manages the evolution of HEDIS, the tool the nation’s health plans use to measure and report on their performance. NCQA is committed to providing health care quality information through the Web, media and data licensing agreements in order to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices. 

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HEDIS® is a registered trademark of the National Committee for Quality Assurance. All rights reserved.