Joyce Frieden describes in MedPage Today the new Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement (NRHI),  aimed at easing regional health-improvement collaboration by making information  more widely available on data collected by cities, states and other regions (such as New England).

“NRHI is a national network for regional health-improvement collaboratives,” explained Elizabeth Mitchell, the network’s president. “We have about 40 members [nationwide], all multi-stakeholder and nonprofit.”
The idea behind the network, she said, is to “do more standard public reporting of performance information of physicians, hospitals, and other providers.”

NRHI, based in Portland, Maine, “also aims to help purchasers use the information to change their payment methodologies, and to help providers improve with respect to the priorities of purchasers.”

“Most members of the network already have multi- or all-payer claims data sets and clinical data, and they’re already using it for performance measurement, public reporting, quality improvement, and other purposes, ” according to Ms. Mitchell. “NRHI’s goal is to standardize and link up all that information.”

“Currently there is so little transparency and ability to compare across practices and hospitals, it’s impossible for public and private payers to change payment effectively,”  she  said, adding that the network will be launched in next month or so.

To publicize the new network’s work,  Ms. Mitchell  said, “We plan to partner with existing publishing channels, whether that’s Consumer Reports or existing large vendors. We are also working directly with large employers, including federal purchasers, to give them the information they need directly.”