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Community Checkup: Alliance finds rising costs, quality variation and gaps in primary-care attribution
Summary
The Washington Health Alliance presented 2024 Community Checkup data showing spending increases above national averages, uneven quality performance across providers, and about a third of patients lacking an attributed primary care relationship—a pattern associated with higher costs and lower preventive care.
Drew of the Washington Health Alliance presented the Community Checkup (full-year 2024), an all-payer claims–based public reporting tool that measures cost, quality and access. The Alliance found statewide increases in total cost of care above national averages and substantial variation in quality metrics across providers and counties.
Drew noted that "up to a third of folks don't really have a PCP relationship," and that people with claims but no attributed primary care clinician tend to cost more and miss preventive screenings. The Community Checkup uses an attribution method (two visits with a PCP in the prior two years) and shows that differences in primary-care relationships correlate with gaps in cancer screening, diabetic eye exams and other preventive measures.
The Alliance also produces composite quality-and-cost rankings and hospital patient-safety grades; statewide quality measures generally fell below national benchmarks, though some clinics and medical groups score in the national top percentile. Drew urged using the data to identify best practices and convene learning collaboratives to spread effective models of care.
Board members asked how purchasers and the state could use the checkup to align incentives, and the Alliance offered to support deeper, purchaser-focused analyses.
