Dive Brief:
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is partnering with northern Michigan's Munson Healthcare to launch a value-based hospital reimbursement program which will last for three years.
- Munson is getting a base-rate increase in reimbursement from BCBSM, and will also benefit financially from any shared savings.
- BCBSM is providing funding to Munson to help make infrastructure improvements -- such as an all-patient registry system -- that will help facilitate communication between the health system's hospitals and physicians.
Dive Insight:
This is an interesting deal. While other value-based payment schemes essentially throw numbers at health systems and hospitals and dump all the work of making it happen on providers, BCBSM has chosen to make an infrastructure investment that makes success more likely. This kind of partnership is far more likely to bear fruit than a unilateral decision by the health plan to impose bundled rates.