Charlotte hospitals sign on to Blue Cross plan to curb rising medical costs
Almost a year after Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina teamed up with five N.C. health systems to curb medical cost increases, the insurer announced this week that Charlotte’s two major health care systems have joined the plan.
With the addition of Atrium Health and Novant Health, the program, called Blue Premier, will be working with seven of the state’s largest health systems starting next year.
Blue Premier uses a “shared risk” financial model to improve patient health and reduce costs. That means the entire Blue Premier health system, including the insurer and now seven health systems, shares cost savings — or financial losses.
That will give providers a big incentive to cut costs as they work to keep patients healthy, according to Blue Cross.
Blue Cross N.C. projects the model will show a medical costs savings of 15 percent in 10 years, the insurer said in a statement.
Patients should see better health outcomes and lower costs through the multi-year deal, according to Blue Cross.
Blue Cross said the Blue Premier program has already helped lower some costs for Affordable Care Act customers. The insurer is lowering ACA individual premiums by a statewide average of 5.5% and Medicare Advantage premiums by a statewide average of 31% next year, Blue Cross said in a statement.
Improving outcomes
Novant and Atrium’s deal with Blue Premier will go live Jan. 1.
“By improving outcomes and overall health, we can simultaneously improve access to our many primary care locations while reducing preventable hospital stays and emergency room visits,” Atrium chief strategy officer Rasu Shrestha said in a statement.
The other five health systems, announced in January, are: WakeMed Health & Hospitals, UNC Health Care, Duke University Health System, Cone Health and Wake Forest Baptist Health.
“We believe this joint accountability model enhances quality, cost, and patient experience,” Novant Health’s Physician Network President Pam Oliver said in a statement.
Blue Cross will share patients’ medical bills with the health systems, which should help eliminate redundant procedures. It will also help hospital systems compare prices and provide better value, Mark Gwynne, president of the UNC Health Alliance, told the News and Observer in January.
“If WakeMed is the lowest-cost center for X-condition, that motivates us at UNC to become the highest value,” Gwynne said at the time. “It is a significant motivator for us to really reduce our total cost of care.”
Blue Cross expects about half of its 3.9 million members will be served by providers in shared-risk agreements in 2020.
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