PHILADELPHIA, March 26, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Yesterday, Independence Blue Cross (Independence) President and CEO Daniel J. Hilferty joined President Barack Obama, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell, and a select group of 125 health care leaders from across the nation at the White House for the official kick-off of the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network (Network). The purpose of the Network, a forum for public-private partnerships established by HHS, is to help the Medicare program and U.S. health care system transition toward alternative payment models that emphasize paying for the quality of care over volume.
"Independence has been at the forefront of the national effort to move toward rewarding physicians and hospitals for balancing quality and cost, and I'm proud to share what we've learned over the last decade," said Hilferty.
"At Independence, we're reimagining health care and putting our members at the center of everything we are doing to improve the quality and bring down the cost of health care. We call that process human-centered innovation," said Hilferty. "It's the foundation for every innovative product and service we create and every collaboration we embrace to simplify the health care experience and help our members navigate pathways to good health."
Through the creation of innovative new models of care and collaborations with other respected leaders in health care, Independence has established itself as a leader in the movement to emphasize paying for the quality of care, not quantity. Independence's alternative payment models include:
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Chronic conditions. Tandigm Health, a joint venture between Independence and DaVita HealthCare Partners, is empowering more than 350 primary care doctors in our region to help better manage chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease. Tandigm provides primary care doctors with financial incentives for the quality of care they provide, not for the number of patients they see, which lowers costs.
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Accountable Care. Independence's Accountable Care Organization (ACO) payment model has been embraced by more than 90 percent of the health care delivery systems in the region. Half of the participating hospitals have successfully reduced their medical costs, and nearly 90 percent have lowered hospital readmission rates on average 16 percent.
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Pay-for-performance collaboration. With a goal of transforming the delivery of health care in New Jersey, Independence subsidiary AmeriHealth New Jersey joined forces with Cooper University Health Care to co-brand health plans and design a pay-for-performance model that rewards the delivery of high-quality and cost-effective care, encourages care coordination, and promotes clinical integration of a hospital and its medical staff.
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Hospitalization rates. Independence developed a predictive analytics model to help reduce hospitalization rates by 50 percent for some groups of chronically ill members with a variety of diseases such as diabetes, congestive heart failure, and asthma.
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Quality and patient safety. For more than a decade, Independence has supported the Partnership for Patient Care, a quality and patient safety collaborative led by southeastern Pennsylvania hospitals, which has been recognized as a national model. Its results include reducing hospital readmissions and hospital infections, such as lowering the incidence of wrong-site surgery and improving the safety of CT imaging.
- Patient-centered medical homes. For more than seven years, Independence has been a pioneer in promoting patient-centered medical homes to improve primary care and has offered a direct financial incentive to practices that achieve recognition as a patient- centered medical home. More than 40 percent of primary care practices in Independence's network are NCQA-recognized medical homes. Results from a three-year study completed in 2013 showed reduced medical costs for diabetic patient care in medical homes and fewer emergency room visits for chronically ill patients.
About Independence Blue Cross
Independence Blue Cross is the leading health insurance organization in southeastern Pennsylvania. With our affiliates, we serve nearly 10 million people in 25 states and the District of Columbia, including 2.5 million in the region. For nearly 80 years, we have been enhancing the health and wellness of the people and communities we serve by delivering innovative and competitively priced health care products and services; pioneering new ways to reward doctors, hospitals, and other health care professionals for coordinated, quality care; and supporting programs and events that promote wellness. To learn more visit www.ibx.com. Connect with us on Facebook at ibx.com/facebook and on Twitter at @ibx. Independence Blue Cross is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.