BATON ROUGE – Some Healthy Blue members are joining Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana’s signature quality improvement program, Quality Blue, as part of a new pilot. This gives Medicaid patients who are members of the Healthy Blue Managed Care Organization (MCO) the benefits of enhanced care coordination, chronic disease management and connection to health coaches that are successful features of Quality Blue.
Quality Blue, which began in August 2013, is Blue Cross’ patient-focused approach to healthcare delivery. In it, the insurer works closely with network primary care providers to get better outcomes for their patients, particularly those who have chronic conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease or kidney disease.
As part of the pilot with Healthy Blue that began this month, one provider group, Access Health Louisiana, one of the state’s largest network of Federally Qualified Health Centers, has added its Healthy Blue patients to Quality Blue. Access Health’s Blue Cross patients are already part of Quality Blue. This gives the providers familiarity with how to help their patients get the most out of this program. Going forward, Healthy Blue hopes to add more providers and therefore more members to Quality Blue.
“This is an ideal partnership for community health centers like Access Health Louisiana, whose missions are already focused on ensuring the same, high-quality care for all of our patients regardless of their insurance type or status,” said Chatrian Kanger, Access Health Louisiana Vice President of Population Health. “We have had a successful first year in the Quality Blue program with our commercial patients, and are confident that we will achieve that same level of success with our Healthy Blue Medicaid patients, given the resources and support the Quality Blue program provides.”
“This partnership is a huge opportunity to have an impact on the health outcomes of Louisiana’s Medicaid population by providing an opportunity for them to participate in the Quality Blue program,” said David Hochheiser, Blue Cross senior vice president of Provider Networks and Healthcare Value. “Our provider partners now have a uniform program for quality engagement across commercial, Medicare Advantage and now Medicaid lines of business. This helps reduce the administrative burden for our enrolled providers by giving them a consistent program regardless of line of business. We believe that the partnership will help us boost health outcomes for more members and move the needle overall on the chronic conditions that are so prevalent in our state.”
“Healthy Blue remains committed to providing innovative healthcare services to our Medicaid members that meets their needs, while creating and delivering data-driven and personalized solutions that enhance the member experience,” said Aaron Lambert, plan president, Healthy Blue. “The Quality Blue program will drive valuable insights and analytics to support our providers in managing our members who have chronic health care conditions. We look forward to working with Access Health Louisiana and our provider community partners across the state to help our Medicaid members live a healthy and productive lifestyle.”
In Quality Blue, Blue Cross establishes clinical quality measures for each targeted chronic condition to track patients’ health improvements over time. For example, providers are tracked to see how many of their patients have blood pressure or blood sugar readings in a healthy range, are taking medication as directed, or are not smoking.
Providers have the opportunity to earn additional payments by showing they are getting better health results, coordinating care, meeting quality benchmarks and managing chronic patients successfully.
Blue Cross program data shows that Quality Blue has driven success through better health outcomes. Since the program began seven years ago, enrolled providers have gotten greater quality improvements for patients who have the targeted chronic conditions, with increased improvement every year.
In the pilot with Healthy Blue, Blue Cross is providing practice transformation resources and care coordination support, along with data analysis to track Healthy Blue members’ progress and assist in reporting results. Using this information, Healthy Blue will connect eligible members with health coaching from its Care Management team and will reimburse its network providers based on their performance.
To learn more about the Quality Blue program and how it helps members, visit www.bcbsla.com/MyQBPC.
Visit the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana YouTube page to see short videos with the clinical team and others discussing various health topics. Subscribe to know when new videos are added. You can also connect with Blue Cross on social media for regular updates.
For more information on Healthy Blue and how members are provided accessible, accountable, comprehensive, integrated and patient-centered care, visit www.myhealthybluela.com or connect on Facebook @HealthyBlueLA.
About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana is committed to our mission to improve the health and lives of Louisianians. Founded in New Orleans in 1934, we are a tax-paying nonprofit health insurer with offices in every major region to serve our customers. We were recognized in 2019 and 2020 as an honoree of The Civic 50, named by Points of Light as one of the 50 most community-minded companies in the United States.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana is an independent licensee of the Cross and Blue Shield Association. We are a private mutual company, owned by our policyholders, with an independent Louisiana Board of Directors and no shareholders. We invite all Louisianians to visit our website at www.bcbsla.com or talk to us on social media.
About Healthy Blue
Healthy Blue is a managed healthcare provider that has been serving the state since 2012, and currently serves the state’s Medicaid, Medicaid Expansion and LaCHIP programs, and recently includes D-SNP Medicare services. Healthy Blue, a joint venture between Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana and Healthy Blue’s parent company, Anthem, Inc., recognizes the challenges low-income and underserved individuals face, and tailors its programs such that health plan members are assured care that is not only accessible, but also accountable, comprehensive, integrated and patient-centered. Healthy Blue provides ongoing community relations and outreach to encourage members to become active participants in their healthcare. Also, through health education programs, members are empowered to choose and sustain healthy lifestyles. To learn more about Healthy Blue, visit www.myhealthybluela.com.
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