The accountable care organization between Downers Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care and BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois resulted in slower growth in the use of inpatient services in 2012, according to a Crain's Chicago Business report.
The ACO, called AdvocateCare, was launched in 2010 and covers about 380,000 lives. Data for about 200,000 members in the PPO portion of the ACO showed reduced inpatient admission rates from 2011 to 2012, a decrease of 1.4 percent. That rate rose at other hospitals in BCBS Illinois' PPO network by 2.2 percent, according to the report.
Growth in the average length of hospital stay remained steady at 1.7 percent for AdvocateCare's PPO members. That rate grew at 2.7 percent for the rest of the BCBSIL network in 2012.
The ACO was also found to have limited the increase in inpatient days to 0.3 percent, compared with 4.7 percent for the rest of the hospitals in BCBS Illinois' PPO network, according to the report.
AdvocateCare's costs are trending 2.5 percent below other hospitals in BCBS Illinois' PPO network, according to data from the payer.
Steve Hamman, senior vice president of network management for BCBS Illinois, said the agreement between Advocate and the insurer was originally was set to run until the end of 2013, but the parties extended it through 2014 because they were encouraged by early results, according to the report.
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