Dive Brief:
- Boeing is in contracts with two separate ACOs—Providence-Swedish Health Alliance and UW Medicine—which are now among the first ACOs in the US to design healthcare plans for a specific private employer.
- Blue Cross of Illinois will remain the administrator that prices and pays claims. However, providers are now responsible for setting targets for employee medical costs.
- Open enrollment started Jan. 1 for Boeing's 30,000 eligible employees and retirees in the Puget Sound area, and has been divided about evenly between the two ACOs. Employees could select a high-deductible plan or a PPO, for which sign-ups exceeded expectations.
Dive Insight:
The key words here are "in the Puget Sound area." Boeing has a set population within a single geographic region, making coordination of care much simpler. Other ACOs have struggled with being too "one-size-fits-all," so tailoring this program to a single employer in a single area allows for the organization to have more control over steering its patients to clinically-appropriate and cost-effective care. The volume of lives that Boeing offers didn't hurt either (although Providence-Swedish says it is working to offer this kind of arrangement to smaller companies as well).
"The track is to take care of communities directly," Joe Gifford, chief executive for Providence-Swedish Health Alliance, told Healthcare Finance. "It does require us to spend money on innovative care." He says the framework being put in place will serve as a model for the future of healthcare. "Everyone is interested across the US. Our phone is ringing from employers," he claims.
UW Medicine's Johnese Spisso touts his plan's service standards, which include same-day appointments, concierge privileges, and mobile access for scheduling and test results.