eValue8™: A Navigation Guide for Health Care Purchasers

eValue8 is the leading evidence-based request for information tool widely used by business health coalitions, their purchaser members, and national employers to assess and manage the quality of their health care vendors. eValue8 raises the bar for health care performance and moves the market to deliver greater value for the purchaser’s health care dollar.

How eValue8 works

Using standardized questions and sophisticated software, eValue8 gathers vendor-specific information in a web-based environment. Using verified and automated scoring, this information is analyzed against industry standards. Assigning weights to the key components according to the strength of the evidence in the literature, as well as individual purchaser preference, allows purchasers to determine how well their health plans meet purchasers’ standards and expectations.

This information and resulting vendor profile is then available to be analyzed by NBCH trained reviewers and scored based on best practice standards. In addition, a "Strengths and Opportunities" summary is prepared for each evaluated plan and then an on-site review is hosted by participating coalitions and purchasers. This in-depth review process leads to ongoing quality improvement by vendors and increased health care value for purchasers.

Using Reports

Performance
eValue8 reports performance in 8 modules:

• Health Plan Profile (administration, financial performance, CDHP strategies, accreditation status)
• Consumer Engagement
• Provider Measurement
• Prescription Drug Management
• Prevention & Health Promotion
• Chronic Disease Management
• Behavioral Health

Each module is divided into sub-categories to enable fast referencing of topics pertinent to the purchaser’s unique needs. For example, within Chronic Disease Management, one can quickly locate data on diabetes care programs, including details on member identification, member and physician intervention and support, and clinical & non-clinical outcomes. Collected information also reveals areas targeted for provider improvement.

Comparisons
eValue8 prepares easy-to-compare performance reports that allow participants to assess health care vendors on a local, regional and national basis. With the resulting information, participating coalitions, purchasers and plans will all be able to improve their management, administration and/or delivery of health care services.

eValue8 is extremely cost effective

It dramatically reduces the time, paperwork, meetings, and outside resources normally associated with assessing, choosing, and/or improving the value of a health care plan.

Purchasers use eValue8 to

• Negotiate with health plans regarding performance targets and the economic return for reaching those targets.
• Work with their health plan and other plans in the community to raise the bar in meeting purchaser standards and expectations.
• Incorporate plan design elements that provide incentives for beneficiaries both to select the best performing plans and to make healthy lifestyle decisions.
• Demonstrate the value of health care benefits and explain cost drivers to senior management.
• Educate employees at open enrollment on their health plan options, and incorporate important information on the company’s intranet site, employee newsletters or publications to provide ongoing health education.

Health plans use eValue8 to

• Assess performance when ranked alongside market-specific competitors.
• Benchmark their quality improvement over time.
• Understand the expectations of their customers and develop products and services to meet their needs.

Participating Health Plans in Oregon 2008

• Aetna
• CIGNA
• HealthNet
• Kaiser
• Lifewise
• PacificSource
• Providence
• Regence
• Samaritan
• United

The ODS Companies participated in 2007 and will participate again in 2009.

Join a collective voice for purchaser expectations

As more coalitions and purchasers use eValue8, health care plans, vendors and administrators spend less time and resources responding to multiple requests for information and more time focusing on the quality and performance measures purchasers want. In addition, the focused performance expectations of eValue8 clearly and explicitly encourage vendors to adopt the best in leading edge improvement and health care quality strategies The national database of responses from health plans also creates unequaled opportunities for comparison, continuous improvement, and research to increase health care purchasing value.

eValue8 Oregon Participating Coalition Members

eValue8 Participating NBCH Coalitions