Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) has launched a value-based hospital reimbursement agreement that includes shared savings with Northern Michigan's Munson Healthcare.
The arrangement covers a three-year period and supports closer collaboration between Munson Medical Center in Traverse City, Kalkaska Memorial Health Center in Kalkaska, Paul Oliver Memorial Hospital in Frankfort and their physician partners, said Jeff Connolly, BCBSM president of West Michigan operations and managed care.
"Healthcare is going down this path," he said. "We have so much in common with Munson and we both have a vested interest in this."
BCBSM will provide the health system with funding for infrastructure improvements needed to better coordinate care between the hospitals and physicians, Connolly said. Munson is getting a base-rate increase in reimbursement from BCBSM and will benefit from any shared savings.
"We have had a very good working relationship with Munson for a long time and they have been very interested in supporting this value-based design," said Susan Barkell, BCBSM senior vice president for Health Care Value. "We're partnering to focus attention on alignment to improve delivery of care across the state and in their region so that costs can be maintained or decreased, and most importantly, it can be coordinated across the entire delivery system."
Among the improvements the partners are working on is an all-patient registry system that has been in the works for the last year. The system aims to share patient records between the hospitals and the physician offices to facilitate better care coordination.