Despite value-based incentives for physicians and hospitals, New Jersey has fewer vaccinations, more cesarean section deliveries and a harder time controlling patients' high blood pressure, according to a report cited by the Asbury Park Press.
The report was published by Catalyst for Payment Reform, a nonprofit that represents employers looking to reduce their healthcare costs and advocates for the value-based care model.
Catalyst's scorecard evaluated New Jersey's progress eight years after the ACA started. It found just over half (52 percent) of payments in 2016 from three major commercial insurers in New Jersey were considered value-based. Only 11 percent of payments nationwide in 2013 were value-based, said Andrea Caballero, Catalyst's program director.
The Garden State fell short on other key indicators as well, the report found:
- About 60 percent of children ages 1½ to 3 got all the recommended doses of seven key vaccines, compared with 71 percent nationwide.
- Nearly 30 percent of women with low-risk pregnancies get C-sections anyway, compared with a target rate of 23 percent.
- Fifty-two percent of patients with hypertension had adequately controlled blood pressure, compared with 54 percent nationwide.
Tying at least some of the payment model to value is a good start, but "we need to go faster," said Linda Schwimmer, president and CEO of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute. "By putting an emphasis on it and showing that we're not doing well enough on quality outcomes, that will help. We need to go faster."