Boeing Intensive Outpatient Care Program

The Boeing IOCP pilot ran from January 2007 through July 2009. The program enrolled employees and pre-Medicare retirees and their adult spouses, who participated in Boeing’s self-funded, non-HMO medical plans. The project was designed by Mercer Health and Benefits and clinically managed by Renaissance Health, in partnership with Regence BlueShield of Washington, Healthways, ValueOptions, and leaders of three physician groups. Boeing incentivized the groups via a monthly per patient fee to test a new, judiciously intensified chronic care model, the “ambulatory intensive caring unit” (A-ICU).  Designed to both lower per capita spending and improve quality by a national team of clinicians and systems engineers familiar with high quality, low-cost care systems, A-ICU model development was coordinated by Mercer with support from the California HealthCare Foundation. 

By delivering highly personalized, coordinated care, the program aimed to improve health and employee productivity, increase patient and provider satisfaction and reduce overall costs. Employees in the program received 24/7 access to a care team and a personal registered nurse that worked with the member to develop an integrated care plan. Regence provided patient claims history back to providers to help identify gaps in care and target interventions.

According to the Commonwealth Fund, the Boeing IOCP effort ended in July 2009, but the company is working to replicate it on a broader basis in collaboration with other purchasers and health plans. Efforts are underway to assess expansion opportunities in the St. Louis and southern California markets where Boeing has a high concentration of employees. Regence began expanding the effort in Seattle in November 2010.