Improving Women’s Health

Welcome to the Improving Women’s Health web site of the American Association of Preferred Provider Organizations (AAPPO).  Almost 70% of commercially insured people are enrolled in a health plan offering a preferred provider organization (PPO) network.  A PPO offers a contracted network of doctors who have agreed to provide care to patients.  PPOs provide easy access to quality care provided by the right doctor, providing the right care, at the right time.  The objective of this web site is to help PPO leaders understand strategies for working with patients, providers, and payers to improve surgical care for women.

The Improving Women’s Health Initiative is targeted to AAPPO’s member organizations, as well as their customers – employers, patients and physicians.  The web site will initially focus on surgical care for women, and will add other chronic disease information over the next few months. 

Why surgical care? Two procedures almost unique to women, breast biopsies and hysterectomies, are among the most common procedures performed in the U.S.  There are 600,000 hysterectomies each year, and 1.7 million breast biopsies.  Yet research shows that a large percentage of these procedures are unnecessarily being performed using older, “open” surgical techniques, even though physicians themselves recommend that they be carried out as “minimally invasive procedures” (MIP) most of the time.  Physicians offering minimally invasive procedures use specialized instruments and small surgical openings.  Patients typically experience less pain, a shorter or no hospital stay, and a lower chance of infection.  In many cases the procedure can be done in an outpatient setting, which can be more convenient and less costly for the patient and a PPO.

This web site provides links to research and information from independent experts that will help PPOs improve their network offerings, and will help patients get the information they need to make clinical decisions.  Use this web site to learn more about issues important to women’s health.

 Click here to listen to AAPPO’s
webinar series featuring expert speakers

This project is supported by
An unrestricted grant from
Ethicon EndoSurgery

Content was developed by AAPPO with the guidance of an independent advisory panel. Editorial decisions are the responsibility of AAPPO and do not constitute medical advice.