Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the Beaumont Hospitals system announced Friday that they had reached agreement on a new five-year contract that will continue care to some 100,000 people covered by a Blues subsidiary.
The Royal Oak-based Beaumont system had threatened to stop taking the insurance of people with coverage from Blue Care Network, a Blues subsidiary, beginning Thursday if the dispute was not resolved.
The new contract will increase payments for care at Beaumont facilities while establishing new performance goals for the health system to improve care and cut unnecessary costs.
The Blues hope to negotiate similar performance-based contracts with all of Michigan’s 144 hospitals in the next two years. Those hospitals had been looking at this dispute for a glimpse of what’s ahead.
The contract calls for better coordination of care through the establishment of programs such as registries for patients with chronic diseases. The registries will allow doctors to check on tests and medicines other specialists may have already ordered. The Blues hope to give Beaumont extra incentive payments starting in 2013 for improving patient care through the registries.
The Blues and Beaumont would not say how much the contract will provide in payment increases, calling the information confidential.
The dispute drew national attention after the Blues and Beaumont took out full-page newspaper ads last year to explain their positions. Sue Barkell, senior vice president for the Blues, said Blue Care Network may have lost some business from policyholders who switched plans to keep their Beaumont doctors, but she did not have figures.
The St. John Providence Health System of Warren last month signed a similar contract with the Blues that moves them away from payments based on volume to another system that rewards high-quality, cost-efficient care, Barkell said.
Contact Patricia Anstett: 313-222-5021 or panstett@freepress.com
Article source: http://www.freep.com/article/20120107/BUSINESS06/201070349/Beaumont-Blues-reach-5-year-deal?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs