Kansas' largest payer is teaming up with Denver-based SCL Health to roll out an accountable care organization for SCL subsidiary, Topeka, Kan.-based St. Francis Health.
The arrangement has been in place since Jan. 1, but Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas announced it Monday. The four-year contract is designed to improve patient outcomes and lower costs over time. It does not entirely replace fee-for-service reimbursement, but rather adds incentives to drive population health and patient experience improvement.
"Developing new reimbursement models that reward providers for focusing on both quality and total cost of care will help ease the transition away from the historic fee-for-service model that led to fragmentation of care," Andrew Corbin, BCBSKS president and CEO, said in a statement. "We are confident that incentives to drive quality and improve the overall health of Kansans will result in better controlled health care costs and have a positive impact on premiums for employers and consumers."
St. Francis Health and the St. Francis Medical Group, together with the St. Francis Accountable Health Network joined the Medicare Shared Savings Program as an ACO in 2014.
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