Medical Quality Commission Finds Services Not Wanted

Who cares about quality these days?

Well, clearly not enough of the right people to keep the Seal Beach-based Medical Quality Commission in business.

The decade-old nonprofit organization, which accredits medical groups, will close down in March. “It’s an idea whose time has not yet come,” says Alan Zwerner, its chief executive.

The group couldn’t find enough medical groups that wanted accreditation. It wanted to accredit hundreds of medical groups a year, but only managed to do 15 in the last year, he said. Its business remained in the red, while the organization ran on a one-time $2.5-million grant from Blue Cross of California and donations from drug companies.

So why weren’t medical groups buying?

The service was costly--$12,000 to $15,000, depending on the size of the medical group applying for accreditation. It also consumed three days of applicants’ time. Evaluators rated them on more than 100 items, including methods for checking physicians’ credentials and plans for improving patient care.

But medical groups that earned the mark of approval didn’t find it enough of a competitive edge in negotiating contracts with health plans, he said.

What’s more, the organization had an image problem. It’s an offshoot of the former Unified Medical Group Assn., a medical trade group, which raised knotty issues for an accrediting outfit. The commission was spun off last summer after Unified Medical merged with a larger trade group to form the American Medical Group Assn. in Alexandria, Va.

The Medical Quality Commission initially awarded its star of approval to medical groups doing business with health maintenance organizations. Last year, it branched into accrediting independent practice associations--loose-knit networks of individual doctors who banded together to contract with HMOs.

Also last year, its accreditations were recognized by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, a nationally known Illinois organization that accredits most of the nation’s hospitals as well as other providers.

But officials say funding dried up and the Medical Quality Commission is being forced to disband.