Most Popular Stories
- Patients choose hospitals based on social media
- Henry Ford raises quality, cuts costs
- Evidence that Meaningful Use dollars drive EHR adoption piles up
- Computer foul-ups cause $42M in Medicaid overpayments
- Excellus fined $1M for denying ER claims
- Speech recognition's potential in mHealth continues to grow
Events
- Annual Research Meeting (ARM)
June 24-26 — Orlando, FL - ATA 2012: 17th Annual International Meeting
April 29-May 1 — San Jose, CA - iHT2 Health IT Summit in Atlanta
April 24-25, 2012 — Atlanta, GA - IHI's Primary Care Practice Coach Program
Begins June 26, 2012
Paid Research Reports
-
Electronic health records: getting it right first time
-
Cloud Computing Adoption In The APAC Life Sciences Industry
-
Stakeholder Opinions: Ophthalmology - Leading brands under threat
-
Genomics, Proteomics and Metabolomics in Diagnostics: Market landscape, innovative technologies and future outlook
-
Healthcare Regulatory Update: The United Arab Emirates
-
Point of Care Testing: Evaluating the return to evidence based medicine, novel technologies and the competitive landscape
Free Newsletter
Free Newsletter
FierceHealthPayer provides the latest news about the fast-changing and heavily regulated area of healthcare reimbursement. Join 16,000 healthcare plan executives who get FierceHealthPayer via twice weekly email. Sign up today!
Top Tags
Blues, provider let employers customize health plans
BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York is teaming up with the region's largest provider system to offer self-insured employers with new tailored networks, in hopes of providing more efficient care that decreases costs.
The BlueCross and Kaleida Health initiative, which officials said is the region's first such integrated network, lets employers customize health plans, tailoring the doctors and hospitals covered under the plan, reported Business First.
"The old model is not working," BlueCross CEO Alphonso O'Neil-White said Wednesday in announcing the new network initiative. "This is not the standard model where a health plan creates a product and throws it out there to the market."
BlueCross and Kaleida Health both admitted that the tailored networks will limit members' choices of doctors and hospitals, but they believe the breadth and depth of services will lead to members accepting the restrictions, Buffalo News reported.
Although each participating employer's health plan will differ, they will share common goals, for example, basing medical decisions on research, avoiding unnecessary tests and procedures, tracking, using data to evaluate performance and stressing preventive care.
The initiative also could lead to BlueCross to create new provider payment systems, such as bundled payments that help cover non-reimbursed services, the insurer said.
Employer groups could begin creating their tailored plans in June and offering them to employees Jan. 1, Business First noted.
To learn more:
- read the Blue Cross statement
- see the Buffalo News article
- check out the Business First article
Related Articles:
Disruptive innovation threatens insurance industry
Guest commentary: WellPoint's primary care-centered approach
CareFirst finds success by tailoring local payment reform
Guest Commentary: 7 tips for insurers considering an ACO
Home | Subscribe | Advertise | Mobile Edition | RSS | Privacy | Site Map | EditorsTHE FIERCEMARKETS NETWORKFierceEnergy | FierceSmartGrid | FierceFinance | FierceFinanceIT | FierceComplianceIT | FierceHealthcare | FierceHealthFinance | FierceHealthIT | Hospital Impact | FierceMobileHealthcare | FierceHealthPayer | FiercePracticeManagement | FierceEMR | FierceCIO | FierceCIO:TechWatch | FierceContentManagement | FierceMobileIT | FierceGovernmentIT | FierceGovernment | FierceHomelandSecurity | FierceBiotech | FierceBiotech Research | FiercePharma | FierceVaccines | FierceBiotechIT | FiercePharma Manufacturing | FierceMedicalDevices | FierceDrugDelivery | FierceCRO | FierceIPTV | FierceOnlineVideo | FierceTelecom | FierceEnterpriseCommunications | FierceBroadbandWireless | FierceDeveloper | FierceMobileContent | FierceWireless | FierceWireless:Europe | FierceCable© 2012 FierceMarkets. All rights reserved. |