CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Launches Reward Program For Physicians

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 18 Jan 2008 - 9:00 PDT

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CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield on Tuesday launched a program to reward physicians for practices that improve the health outcomes of patients, an "approach it believes could ultimately lower medical costs," the Baltimore Sun reports. Under the program -- which was developed with standards from national organizations including Medicare, medical specialty societies and the National Committee for Quality Assurance -- physicians would receive as much as a 7% increase in payments for meeting a variety of care standards. Quality measures include a combination of:

• Processes, such as whether patients receive recommended screenings;
  
  
• Services, such as whether physicians have weekend or evening hours; and
  
  
• Outcomes, such as whether patients lowered their cholesterol.

Participation in the initiative is voluntary, and all physicians in the CareFirst network are eligible. Primary care physicians and internal medicine specialists will be able to submit data in 2008 to receive higher payments in 2009, with more specialties added in 2009 and payments for those specialties beginning in 2010 (Salganik, Baltimore Sun, 1/16).

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