Bridges to Excellence (BTE), a non-profit organization that encourage leaps in the quality of health care by recognizing and rewarding high-performing physicians, added five new programs to assess the improvement in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of chronic conditions. The new Care Link programs include:

– Asthma Care Link
– COPD Care Link
– Congestive Heart Failure Care Link
– Coronary Artery Disease Care Link
– Hypertension Care Link

According to BTE, the new programs cover the majority of the health care costs in the system today and the bulk of patients providers are seeing.

“Our work has shown that there are significant avoidable costs associated with the management of these conditions,” said Francois de Brantes, BTE’s chief executive officer, in an announcement. “By reducing preventable complications incurred by most patients with these chronic conditions, we could significantly improve the health of employees and save employers billions of dollars.”

The programs provide incentives that reward physicians and practices for adopting better systems of care that result in physician practice reengineering, the adoption of health information technology, and delivering good outcomes to patients. Doctors who demonstrate excellent performance in these areas can earn recognition and qualify for incentives from participating employers and health plans.

“Our emphasis to-date has been on encouraging the adoption of systems of care— including EMRs (Electronic Medical Records)— as well as demonstrating the use of those systems in delivering good results in patient management,” said de Brantes. “It’s time to switch the emphasis almost exclusively on the results of patient management and these new programs, combined with our existing focus in diabetes, ischemic vascular disease, back pain and depression, provide employers and their health plans with a complete portfolio to power up pay for performance efforts.”

Additionally, BTE will also be utilizing IPRO’s Clinical Data Portal to accept chart data directly or through an EMR system and score data against clinical measures.

Information on how to participate in the new programs as an employer or a physician can be found here.