Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois announces four more commerical Accountable Care Organization Agreements

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL) announces four new, strategic agreements aimed at improving patient care while slowing health care cost trends. Accountable Care Organizations are a value-based care model that seeks to move the healthcare industry's payment structure from one based on fee-for-service, or volume, to one that reimburses based on the quality of patient outcomes and patient care. In an ACO, both the payer and provider share financial risk, and in return, shared savings, while improving the care that is delivered.

BCBSIL's provider-partners in the four new ventures will have more than a combined 111,000 patients participating:

1. Kane County Independent Physician Association, a physicians group
2. Alexian Brothers Health Systems, a five-hospital network based in Arlington Heights
3. North Shore University Health System, a four-hospital network based in Evanston
4. Presence Health, with 11 hospitals across the state

"We work with each provider to better coordinate care and share valuable data that helps direct providers' efforts toward where the data trends point. Each provider group then agrees on a set of quality measurements and improvement goals, including reducing inpatient stays and emergency room visits, avoiding unnecessary readmissions, along with improving key care quality measurements, said Jerry Bradford, vice president for Network Management, BCBSIL.

These new ACOs – a partnership with providers and health systems- now brings our total to nine ACOs, with the first such commercial ACO being initiated in 2010 with Advocate Health Care, the state's largest hospital healthcare system."