Dive Brief:
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is teaming up with Mayo Clinic to decide what technologies the insurer will cover in a deal that also keeps the health systems hospitals in the Blues' network through 2023.
- The five-year agreement calls for a joint governance structure to determine coverage of new technologies in areas such as organ transplants, radiation therapy and genomics.
- The pact takes effect January 1, 2019 and will focus on cutting costs and making care of complex cases more efficient.
Dive Insight:
With the ongoing shift to value-based care, insurers are looking for ways to reduce costs while boosting customer loyalty. Providers are looking to improve care outcomes and the patient experience.
As an example of the "guided-care" approach the partnership supports, BCBSM said Blue Cross’ High Complexity Case Unit and Mayo’s Complex Care Program would work together to identify patients needing Mayo Clinic care. The aim is to get patients with complex needs on the right treatment plan quickly and bring down overall costs of care.
Companies from all sides of the industry are coming together as they rethink their business models and customers. Humana and Walgreens, for example, announced on Tuesday they will open two new senior-focused primary care clinic in two Kansas City, Missouri-area Walgreens. The programs banks on a confluence of primary care, pharmacy and in-person health plan support for Medicare beneficiaries in a retail setting.
These partnerships should expand as the reformation of the industry continues.
“Our new agreement was designed with the goal of launching a new kind of long-term strategic relationship that can bring long-term pricing predictability and stability to the market while fostering continued innovation in the way care is accessed, paid for and delivered,” Garret Black, senior vice president of health services and enterprise solutions at the payer, said in a statement.
BCBSM recently partnered with health and patient management startup Sharecare to offer its personalized wellness platform to commercial plan members. That agreement establishes Sharecare as the basis for the digital health management offerings on the payer’s health and wellbeing platform.