Initiatives

Regional, not national, leadership is key to payment reform demonstrations. That was one of the conclusions of the nearly one hundred participants from across the country who attended the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement's (NRHI) March 29, 2007, Summit on Creating Payment Systems to Accelerate Value-Driven Health Care. The overwhelming majority — 96% — agreed that regional demonstrations were the most desirable way to move forward, and that while participation by Medicare was desirable, it was not essential in order for regional payment demonstrations to be successful.

While payment demonstrations can and should be pursued at the regional level, this does not mean that payment reform should be a parochial enterprise. Medicine advances the state-of-the-art through local innovations that are supported, replicated, and evaluated nationally—the same is true of payment reform. The participants at the NRHI summit concluded that the most desirable way to pursue payment reform demonstrations was through regional collaboratives of payers and providers, working in a national network.

PRHI supports collaborative efforts among regional healthcare improvement organizations. PRHI is committed to pursuing the development and implementation of payment reform demonstrations in the Pittsburgh Region. Payment reform is critical to achieving PRHI's other quality improvement goals.That's why it was a founding member of NRHI — the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement.

NRHI's goals are to:

• Share practical knowledge among regional healthcare improvement organizations;
• Provide technical assistance to other regions seeking to establish or improve their own regional healthcare improvement organizations;
• Impact the national policy agenda based on the experience developed in improving health care at the regional level; and
• Serve as a clearinghouse for operational standards on quality and efficiency metrics.

One of NRHI's priorities is to work collectively to improve healthcare payment systems.