Trinity Health – Michigan and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) recently announced that they signed a three and a half year agreement under which BCBSM will provide some funding to support a collaborative effort of Trinity Health and its affiliated physician organizations to make improvements in infrastructure designed to improve clinical integration and support population management, with the goal of improving the quality of care, enhancing patient experience and outcomes, and reducing health care costs. BCBSM and Trinity Health will also collaborate to implement performance measures on patient satisfaction and quality. These infrastructure improvements and measures will prepare Trinity Health and its affiliated physician organizations for a transition from a fee-for-service reimbursement from BCBSM to a “performance-based reimbursement” or “gain sharing” arrangement, to be implemented sometime before 2016.
Trinity Health is the third health system to sign similar agreements with BCBSM, after St. John Providence Health System and Beaumont Health System. By the end of 2012, BCBSM intends to reach agreements with additional hospitals so that 50% of its hospital spending will be subject to value-based reimbursement agreements.
More details are available in Crain’s Detroit Business.
