BCBSRI partners with Care New England, R.I. Primary Care on accountable care model

BLUE CROSS & BLUE SHIELD of Rhode Island has joined with Care New England and Rhode Island Primary Care Physicians Corp. to form an accountable care model designed to lower health care costs and improve communication in Rhode Island's health care system.
BLUE CROSS & BLUE SHIELD of Rhode Island has joined with Care New England and Rhode Island Primary Care Physicians Corp. to form an accountable care model designed to lower health care costs and improve communication in Rhode Island's health care system.

PROVIDENCE – Care New England, Rhode Island Primary Care Physicians Corp. and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island on Thursday announced that they had come together to form the state’s first fully integrated accountable care payment model, designed to improve quality and coordination of care and ultimately drive down costs for patients.

Under the terms of the three-year agreement, the three parties will share savings and risk, providing significant new incentives to improve coordination and communication across all aspects of patient care, according to a news release from Blue Cross.

“This groundbreaking collaboration is a prime example of the kind of partnerships we need to truly transform health care here in Rhode Island,” said Peter Andruszkiewicz, president and CEO of Blue Cross & Blue Shield. “We’re tremendously proud of this partnership with Care New England and RI Primary Care, and hope it encourages others to do more and move even more quickly to improve the health of our communities.”

The agreement builds on a partnership between Blue Cross and Care New England that was reached in August 2013 to advance the shared “Triple Aim” goals of improving patients’ experience, improving overall population health and reducing the cost of health care. At the same time, Care New England and RI Primary Care were signing an affiliation agreement.

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By moving away from the traditional fee-for-service model, the new three-way agreement will include more than 10,000 Blue Cross & Blue Shield Medicare Advantage members, as well as more than 100 RI Primary Care providers and all four Care New England hospitals and VNA of Care New England.

Sixty percent of the providers included in the agreement are patient-centered medical home practices, the Blue Cross release said.

“The key to improving health care is cooperation and collaboration among all the parties that provide different levels of care to our patients. The deficit in our system has been the lack of effective communication between primary care physicians, hospital personnel, specialists and payers,” said Dr. Albert J. Puerini, president and CEO of RI Primary Care.

“This joint initiative, for the first time in Rhode Island, brings together all involved parties to work together and provide the best possible approach across the health care spectrum, while keeping the patient firmly in the center of the total care initiative.”

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