Blue Cross Blue Defend of Massachusetts has entered into value-based fee contracts centered on enhancing well being fairness with 4 healthcare organizations, the payer introduced Thursday.
The contracts are with Steward Well being Care Community, Beth Israel Lahey Well being, Mass Basic Brigham and Boston Accountable Care Group, which is a part of Boston Medical Middle. In whole, these organizations look after greater than 550,000 members of BCBS Massachusetts. Every group might be engaged on choose well being fairness measures.
BCBS Massachusetts believes it’s the first well being plan within the nation to offer this sort of program, claimed Dr. Mark Friedberg, senior vice chairman of efficiency measurement and enchancment of the insurer.
“Our aim is to eradicate inequities within the care our members obtain and to assist create a extra equitable, inexpensive well being care system,” Friedberg wrote in an e-mail. “We need to interact as many physicians and hospitals in fairness enchancment as we will.”
All 4 organizations might be initially centered on lowering disparities in controlling hypertension. Steward Well being Care Community and Boston Accountable Care Group will even give attention to colorectal most cancers screenings and Beth Israel Lahey will tackle complete diabetes care. These measures have been chosen as a result of that they had “enough fairness gaps” amongst giant populations throughout a number of races and ethnicities, Friedberg mentioned. As this system evolves, further well being fairness measures might be added.
“We will incentivize and allow enhancements by tying funds to fairness measures … Every supplier group will obtain larger funds as inequities among the many sufferers they serve get smaller,” Friedberg mentioned.
To trace the success of BCBS Massachusetts’ well being fairness efforts, the Middle for Healthcare Group and Innovation Analysis on the UC Berkeley College of Public Well being might be conducting an impartial exterior analysis of the insurer. In August, the Commonwealth Fund awarded the analysis group a greater than $397,000 grant to check BCBS Massachusetts’ work in well being fairness.
In 2021, BCBS Massachusetts started amassing knowledge on racial disparities in healthcare amongst its members and scientific companions. This knowledge confirmed areas of great inequities, which led to the creation of those value-based contracts, Friedman mentioned.
Whereas the payer is initially beginning with these 4 healthcare organizations, it hopes to enter into value-based contracts for well being fairness with others sooner or later.
“Whereas Steward Well being Care Community, Beth Israel Lahey Well being, Boston Accountable Care Group, and Mass Basic Brigham are among the many first to participate in these fee contracts, we’re prepared and keen so as to add further well being care organizations,” Friedman mentioned.
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