New Report Recognizes Minnesota Medical Groups for High Quality Performance

January 11, 2024

Several top performers on quality also achieve low costs 

A new report from MN Community Measurement (MNCM) combines data from multiple sources to determine which Minnesota medical groups consistently perform well on measures of health care quality. The report was released by MN Community Measurement (MNCM), an independent non-profit that serves as an objective, trusted source of information on Minnesota health care quality, cost, and equity.

The report, Minnesota Health Care Quality Report Part 3: Top Performing Medical Groups Across All Quality Measures , combines data from quality measures reported to MNCM throughout 2023 to identify top performing medical groups, defined as those with statistically better than average performance on at least half of the quality measures that were applicable to them.

New this year, the report also recognizes medical groups that are top quality performers and also achieve lower total cost of care for privately insured patients than the statewide average.

Top Performing Medical Groups

Seven medical groups in Minnesota achieved the designation as top performing groups for their overall quality performance in 2022. The seven top performing groups include:

• Central Pediatrics
• Essentia Health
• HealthPartners Clinics
• Mankato Clinic, Ltd.
• Mayo Clinic
• Park Nicollet Health Services
• South Lake Pediatrics

Of the seven medical groups recognized for high quality, four also achieved lower than average total cost of care for their privately insured patients in 2022: Central Pediatrics, HealthPartners Clinics, Park Nicollet Health Services, and South Lake Pediatrics.

“It’s no small feat to achieve consistently high health care quality across a wide range of measures,” said Julie Sonier, MNCM President and CEO. “Recognition of these high performing medical groups is well deserved. In addition, the fact that several of them achieve lower than average costs is important – it demonstrates that high quality and low cost can go hand in hand.”

“Patients need health care quality and affordability to go hand in hand, and this report demonstrates that health systems can achieve both,” said Andrea Walsh, HealthPartners President and CEO. “Our team of 27,000 colleagues is focused on improving quality and access while lowering total cost of care. We remain committed as ever to making much more urgently needed progress.”

Importance of Measurement

Measuring and reporting on health care quality and cost helps consumers understand how care varies across providers, allows providers to identify improvement opportunities and how their measures compare to others, and helps health plans and other purchasers better understand and improve value for money that is spent on health care.

“Minnesota is unique in the capabilities that we’ve built to measure and report on health care outcomes,” said Sonier. “Having a common set of priorities and common set of data have been huge assets to our state in focusing efforts to drive improvement.”

About MN Community Measurement MN Community Measurement is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering health care decision makers with meaningful data to drive improvement. A trusted source of health care data since 2005, MNCM works with doctors, hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, and state agencies to collect, analyze, and report health care data related to quality, cost, and equity of health care.

Posted in Press Release