Jefferson Health System, based in Philadelphia, and Independence Blue Cross have reached a new two-year contract centered on accountable care payments.
The new plan, retroactive to June 1, is IBC's "Integrated Provider Performance Incentive Plan" — a payment structure IBC says rewards hospitals and physicians who provide high-quality, coordinated and cost-effective care. About 85 percent of hospitals and health systems in IBC's network have the IPPIP.
Specific financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, IBC and JHS said the model provides incentives for providers that lower hospital-acquired infections, prevent avoidable readmissions and follow evidence-based medicine for surgical care, treatment of heart attacks and other conditions.
Jefferson Health System is one of the largest health systems in the Philadelphia area. The accountable care contract covers services at all its acute-care hospitals, including Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals and the four hospitals within Radnor, Pa.-based Main Line Health. In 2011, JHS formed the Accountable Care Organization of Pennsylvania, which will manage the new deal with IBC.
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