In a California program, quality and utilization reports on reproductive health services spurred providers to change

Abstract

The use of performance indicators has the potential to improve service quality and avert costs, yet such indicators have typically not been used to assess family planning and reproductive health services. An exception is California's Family PACT (Planning, Access, Care, and Treatment) Program, a statewide family planning and reproductive health services program. Our study assessed whether the behavior of providers participating in this program was influenced by performance reports that used both quality improvement and utilization management indicators. We examined three indicators in each category from 2005 to 2009 and found that change occurred in five of six indicators among private providers and in three of six indicators among public providers. Chlamydia screening rates in women age twenty-five and younger, for example, increased significantly among both private and public providers. Despite the challenges enumerated in this article, we conclude that the methodology used in the program could serve as a starting point for the development of a uniform set of provider-focused reproductive health quality and utilization reports that could be instituted by state family planning programs, state Medicaid programs and health plans, and other health care delivery systems.