Dive Brief:
- Blue Cross Blue Shield announced today that they annually spent $65 billion—about 20% of the medical claims they pay—on "value-based" care.
- The insurer said that its member plans have a portfolio of over 350 "locally-developed, value-based programs in 49 states," including contracts with 215,000 physicians.
- According to BCBS, the provider contracts include pay for performance programs, episode-based payment programs, patient-centered medical homes and ACOs.
Dive Insight:
...and the march towards value-based care—in all its many iterations—continues. BCBS is not the only insurer betting on a move away from fee-for-service. UnitedHealth expects accountable care contracts to more than double by 2018 (from $30 billion to $65 billion) and Aetna also says that 20% of its medical claims costs are for value-based care.
The bigger question is how the industry defines "value-based care." It's a word often used by payers, providers, patient advocates and policy-makers alike, but as BCBS' "portfolio" of local contracts demonstrates, "value-based" care means very different things in different patient populations.