Boeing selected two Seattle-based accountable care organizations — one affiliated with Providence Health & Services and Swedish Health Services, the other with UW Medicine —for its new Preferred Partnership option for employees.
Beginning this fall, 27,000 Boeing employees in the Puget Sound area and about 3,00 retirees can choose either ACO for their personal and family health plans, according to a Seattle Times report. The plans take effect Jan. 1, 2015.
Providence-Swedish Health Alliance includes the network's clinics and hospitals, as well as The Everett Clinic, Pacific Medical Centers clinics, The Polyclinic, Proliance Surgeons and other care settings. Members of the UW Medicine network include Seattle Children's Hospital, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and the Overlake and Northwest Hospital centers and clinics, according to the report.
Boeing officials say there are numerous incentives for using the Preferred Partnership option, including lower paycheck deductions to pay for care, larger company contributions to health savings accounts, no co-payments for visiting primary-care doctors in many cases and 100-percent coverage for generic-drug prescriptions.
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