PROVIDENCE – In another sign of the move to transform health care delivery and payment models, Care New England and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island have entered into an agreement for a new integrated care and pay model for obstetrics patients.
The first phase of the two-part program is scheduled to begin Jan. 1, and is designed to improve care of families from birth through the first six weeks post-delivery. The second phase, which is to focus on new approaches to prenatal care, is to be developed over the course of 2015. In both cases, Blue Cross is creating payment incentives that depend on the health of the population of families before and after the birth of a new child.
“The initiative with Blue Cross offers a unique opportunity to engage a broader range of partners in the establishment and adoption of community-wide clinical best practices,” said Dr. Maureen G. Phipps, chief of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Women & Infants Hospital, a Care New England facility. “It is our hope that this will make Rhode Island a national leader in defining and delivering maternity care excellence.”
From post-delivery home visits to family planning and depression screening, among other clinical initiatives, Women & Infant is looking to increase the touchpoints families receive from its staff. The same evidence-based approach will be used to design new protocols for prenatal care in the second phase of the project.
“In this new model, the patient is at the center, care teams are coordinated and far more integrated and payment arrangements provide financial incentives for the health of populations,” said Peter Andruszkiewicz, president and CEO of Blue Cross. “This initiative is the best example we have in Rhode Island to date of providers, from the hospital system and from the community, working together to improve on the already strong care model for a population of very important patients. This combined with a new payment methodology that incents an evidence-based, best practice approach to maternity care is just the beginning of larger changes in health care delivery and financing that Blue Cross and all of our provider partners are working toward.”
