Blue Cross and 7 health organizations will share financial risk for patient care and health

We’re pleased to announce that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and seven health organizations have agreed to a next-generation value-based incentive agreement as part of our Blueprint for Affordability. The organizations are:

• Ascension Michigan (Genesys PHO, Partners in Care, St. Mary's PHO)
• Henry Ford Health System
• Michigan Medicine
• Oakland Southfield Physicians
• The Physician Alliance
• Trinity Health-Michigan (Saint Joseph Mercy Health System, Mercy Health, Mercy Health Physician Partners, IHA and St. Joe's Medical Group)
• United Physicians

These are expected to be the first of several such agreements with Michigan providers that will help us reinvent health care.

Read Dan Loepp’s column about the announcement titled “Partnering with Health Leaders to Transform How Patient Health Care Is Managed and Paid for in Michigan” at MiBluesPerspectives.com.

This new payment model helps us work together with providers to make health care safer, better and more affordable for our members and customers. We’ve worked together successfully with doctors and hospitals in the past through our other value-based reimbursement programs, and this is the next step toward a health care system that pays for quality, outcomes and value.

Focus is on the patients
Creating programs such as this aligns our payment structures with the idea that patient care should be coordinated to ensure appropriate care across all settings and work to reduce duplication, re-admissions and complications.

Health care providers have always been on the front line of health care. They’re the innovators of health care delivery. Putting quality and cost management in their hands will give patients high-quality, leading edge care and help to manage the costs.

Over the next few months, you’ll hear more about our efforts to help transform the system. For more information, visit BlueprintForAffordability.com.