Medical Database Agreement to Enhance ACG Risk Adjustment System

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 14 Jul 2004 - 2:00 PDT

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Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have signed a multi-year agreement with PharMetrics, Inc., of Watertown, Mass., to acquire data from the company's proprietary Anonymous Patient-Centric Database. The database, which includes health care information from over 50 million Americans, is the largest and most complete of its kind. The information will help researchers enhance the Adjusted Clinical Groups® Case-Mix System (ACG System), which allows health care providers, insurers and health maintenance organizations to manage funds more efficiently and effectively.

Developed by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School Public Health, the ACG System is a computer-based program that assesses the health of people enrolled in a given health plan. The plans, in turn, use the ACG System to help predict the need for their future health care services.

Adjusted Clinical Groups (ACGs) are a series of mutually exclusive, health-status categories that are defined by morbidity, age and gender.

They are based on the premise that the level of resources necessary for delivering appropriate health care to a population is correlated to the illness burden of that population. ACGs are used to assess provider performance, identify future high-cost cases and develop innovative plan payment and financial risk-sharing arrangements by more than 175 healthcare organizations worldwide.

"With our ability to access PharMetrics' anonymous patient-centric data, we are able to make a more significant contribution toward improving the quality, as well as efficiency, of care being delivered by payors that depend on our ACG System across the country.

The PharMetrics Database is the ideal resource for our ACG research and development efforts, not only because of the robustness of its data, but also because of its exemplary data quality assurance process," said David Bodycombe, ScD, an ACG System team leader and scientist at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

"We are pleased to be partnering with one of the most prestigious public health institutions in the U.S.," said Michael Weintraub, president and chief executive officer of PharMetrics. "This event further validates the need for our unique asset, the Anonymous Patient-Centric Database, which is the largest and most complete database of its kind. It contains de-identified pharmaceutical and medical records for a population of 55 million people," Weintraub added. "Over 70 different, geographically diverse health plans now contribute longitudinal data to our Anonymous Patient-Centric Database, which contains more than 2 billion health care transactions, including prescriptions, outpatient visits, hospital stays and diagnostic tests."

Computer Science Corporation (CSC) is the exclusive distributor of the ACG System software. Information about the ACG System is available at www.acg.jhsph.edu and at www.csc.com.

Information about PharMetrics is available at http://www.pharmetrics.com.

Public Affairs media contacts for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Tim Parsons or Kenna Lowe at 410-955-6878 or paffairs@jhsph.edu.

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