DES MOINES, IA – Long-time collaborators Iowa Health System and Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Iowa – respectively, the state’s largest healthcare system and payer – are implementing a pay-for-performance (P4P) pilot that aligns payer incentives with quality and safety improvements.

Peter Roberts, group vice president for provider relations and health management for Wellmark, said “the financial vehicle and the healthcare delivery organization must come together” in order for the P4P to succeed.

The Iowa Health System launched an evidence-based care initiative to standardize order sets, developed using Zynx Health’s Web-based knowledge management system, across its hospital system. “The payer stepped forward to build a reward system that would reinforce the use of the order sets,” said Sal Bognanni, the system’s director of clinical performance improvement.

Wellmark wanted to financially support the Iowa Health System’s system-wide commitment to evidence-based protocols for care, which Roberts believes could be a role model for other regions, because the payer supports evidence-based care for its members.

St. Luke’s Hospital in Grand Lakes will be the pilot site, where approximately 300 patients with heart failure will participate in the study.