2023 Annual Report: Focusing on Value, Collaborating on Quality, Delivering Better Outcomes
Blues Perspectives
| 3 min read
As the largest health insurer in Michigan, Blue Cross is in a unique position to shape the way health care is delivered statewide.
Through longstanding collaborations with those who provide care, we work together to improve care quality, lower health care costs and create a better experience for members and providers. Our collaborations are some of the largest in size and scope in the United States. 2023 marked a continuation of our evolving approach to value-based payment models.
Through our industry-leading value-based care program, Blueprint for Affordability, Blue Cross has developed financial incentives and initiatives that link payment to patient outcomes. We support physicians and other care providers in these payment models with tools and resources that help them deliver high quality, affordable care and better patient experiences.
In 2023, we expanded several programs that help our members get personalized care that is coordinated around their individual needs. By partnering with providers to drive value, our members get the right care, in the right setting, at the right time. This improves patient outcomes and strengthens the way the health care system works for members, physicians and customers.
Two of these efforts included:
Behavioral health and primary care alignment
Our innovative Collaborative Care Program continued to grow – integrating physical and mental health care services together in the physician practice. In 2023, we designated 239 primary care practices and five obstetrics/gynecology practices as Collaborative Care practices, up from 213 the year before.
In this model, behavioral health specialists are embedded into the physician group’s practice, so patients can more quickly access needed mental health care in a familiar place where they are already receiving care.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for behavioral health services has surged, creating long wait lists and overloaded mental health providers. Collaborative Care addresses this by placing a behavioral health specialist within the doctor’s office who works with a consulting psychiatrist to develop a mental health care plan that fits each patient’s needs.
Expansion of value-based payment models
Roughly one million members now receive care from a physician who participates in our groundbreaking Blueprint for Affordability program. That means our members are receiving care from physicians who have committed to improving quality and outcomes, and who are willing to tie their reimbursement to how well they perform toward those goals.
Because physicians participating in Blueprint face increasing demands to manage health care cost and outcomes for their patients, we provide tools and support to make it easier for them to succeed.
Blueprint for Affordability physicians have demonstrated great success so far, with $93 million in lower costs and higher HEDIS® and Medicare Star quality performance over a three-year period. Blueprint physicians are located in communities across Michigan and deliver care to patients in 82 percent of Michigan’s geography.
More of our members are getting the appropriate, high-value, personalized care they deserve. As our longstanding partnerships with physicians and hospitals continue to evolve and adapt, together we are delivering better outcomes and value in the health care experience.
