Jun 1, 2022
First Hospital Ratings to Incorporate Health Equity Adjustments
ENGLEWOOD, Colo., June 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- InHealth Advisors released its inaugural ValueSCORE™ ratings for 2022 today. The ValueSCORE™ encapsulates publicly reported data for nearly 70 measures of patient safety, cost effectiveness, quality of care, provider engagement, and patient experience for more than 3,300 acute care hospitals in the United States. Unlike other hospital rating systems, the ValueSCORE™ adjusts these ratings according to 15 social determinants of health measures. As a result, the ValueSCORE more accurately reflects the value of the care provided by each hospital rather than the demographics of its patient population.
"The ValueSCORE™ represents the next step in measuring and assessing the value of care delivered by healthcare organizations," commented Luis Argueso, Partner and co-founder of InHealth Advisors. "It enhances prior attempts at quantifying value by adjusting cost, engagement, outcome, and safety measures to account for both the underlying social risk of the treated population, as well as the change in performance over time. The intelligence delivered by the ValueSCORE™ will enable organizations to assess their readiness for value-based care, identify high-value areas of investment to improve their quality, and advocate for better reimbursement rates from payors."
Lakeland Community Hospital claimed the top ValueSCORE™ in the 2022 rankings. The Haleyville, Alabama facility ranked in the top decile in every ratings category despite its risk rating, which is based on social risk factors, falling among the highest two percent of hospitals in the country. The following hospitals earned the 10 highest ValueSCORE™ ratings in 2022, ranking them among the top 0.25 percent of hospitals in the U.S.:
Lakeland Community Hospital Haleyville, AL
Saint Francis Hospital Vinita Vinita, OK
Memorial Health Meadows Hospital Vidalia, GA
Scotland Memorial Hospital Laurinburg, NC
Henry County Medical Center Paris, TN
Munson Healthcare Grayling Hospital Grayling, MI
Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union County New Albany, MS
INTEGRIS Grove Hospital Grove, OK
Cary Medical Center Caribou, ME
Ascension St. Joseph Hospital Tawas City, MI
"These organizations represent the best of the best in terms of delivering real value for their patients," said Jim Carr, co-founder and Partner of InHealth Advisors. "When you examine the social risk factors of their patient populations, you might expect weaker performance in the areas of safety, cost, outcomes, and engagement. Yet, each of these hospitals ranked in the top five percent of facilities nationally before any adjustments for social determinants of health. They are truly on the leading edge of value-based care."
The ValueSCORE™ for each rated hospital is available today at myvaluescore.com. Future updates of the ValueSCORE™ are expected to introduce expanded rankings for additional facility types, such as children's hospitals, as well as continued enhancement of the adjustments for social risk factors to align with potential healthcare payment models that may incorporate health equity features.
About InHealth Advisors
InHealth Advisors seeks to make the revolution in value-based care a reality today. They assist hospitals, medical groups, payors, and other healthcare organizations increase the value of healthcare provided for their patients and members. To ensure the fruits of the VBC revolution are distributed fairly, InHealth utilizes innovative tools like the ValueSCORE™ benchmarking platform to help healthcare organizations evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives relative to the social risk factors of the organization's patient or member population and, ultimately, increase the value and equity of the healthcare provided to that population.
Contact: Luis Argueso
Partner
InHealth Advisors
(719) 224-0500