BCBSLA Recognizes Top-performing Clinics

At the annual Quality Blue Primary Care Statewide collaborative, which took place today at the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana leadership unveiled 2016 program statistics that show the program is driving continued improvement for customers who have chronic diseases that are common in Louisiana.

During the collaborative awards ceremony, Blue Cross named the four clinics with the highest scores on Quality Blue’s clinical quality measures for the program’s four targeted chronic conditions:

  • Highest Achievement in Diabetes Care 2016: The Family Doctors – Shreveport
  • Highest Achievement in Hypertension Care 2016: Bossier Family Medicine
  • Highest Achievement in Vascular Care 2016: Bossier Family Medicine
  • Highest Achievement in Kidney Care 2016: Bella Family Medical – Baton Rouge 

For the first time in the history of Quality Blue, two clinics tied for the Highest Overall Performance award, which goes to the clinic with the highest combined score on the four healthcare quality measures and three efficiency measures that track how well a practice is reducing the use of unnecessary services.

For 2016, the co-Highest Overall Performance winners are The Family Doctors – Shreveport and Shreveport Internal Medicine. 

Blue Cross also recognized more than 175 primary care doctors from around the state for achieving top scores on the clinical quality measures. Data collected over the three years of the program show that Quality Blue doctors have together gotten higher percentages of all patients enrolled in the program at goal for the quality measures for the targeted chronic conditions:

•           33% of all diabetic patients

•           69% of all high blood pressure patients

•           36% of all heart disease patients

•           71% of all kidney disease patients

For patients with high blood pressure, 163 primary care doctors enrolled in Quality Blue have gotten 70% of their own patients at goal for that condition.

Three years into its Quality Blue Primary Care program, Blue Cross continues seeing patient-focused care lead to better health results for customers. The program began in 2013 and today has expanded to include 728 primary care doctors who are treating 217,562 Blue Cross customers, including more than 85,000 who have chronic illnesses.

“Louisiana is a state with many good qualities, but unfortunately, our health status has not ranked high on any national lists,” said I. Steven Udvarhelyi, M.D., Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana president and CEO. “Blue Cross has a real opportunity, as the largest commercial insurer in the state, to drive lasting improvements in the health of Louisianians with our Quality Blue program. And, the results show we are headed in that direction.”

Blue Cross is the only health insurer in Louisiana to offer a patient-centered program like Quality Blue. Because the program helps Blue Cross customers get coordinated care, health coaching, and more preventive treatment, it is also holding down costs. Doctors are paid based on how effectively they work with their patients toward better outcomes.

Blue Cross measures patient improvement on the four chronic conditions targeted in Quality Blue—diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and kidney disease—with a series of quality measures that show how well the doctors are getting their patients to meet health goals.

“Blue Cross has invested a lot in launching and growing Quality Blue because we believed this was absolutely the right approach to get better health and better care at a lower cost,” said Dr. Paul Murphree, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana interim chief medical officer. “The results show this is working, and we keep seeing continued improvement each year.”

In addition to health improvements, Murphree shared data at the collaborative that shows Blue Cross customers seeing Quality Blue doctors have lower monthly costs and pharmacy costs than other customers, and are less likely to be admitted to the hospital. ER use is also lower among Blue Cross customers seeing Quality Blue doctors.

“This indicates that Quality Blue is working as intended, to get more customers to see a primary care doctor for most of their medical needs, which is less intensive and more cost-effective,” Murphree said. “If customers are seeing primary care doctors regularly, they are also more likely to catch health problems earlier, when they are easier to treat. Our partnership with primary care doctors in Quality Blue is very important because it drives results like these.”

For more information on the Quality Blue Primary Care program, visit www.bcbsla.com/QBPC. Learn more about the ways Blue Cross is using Quality Blue to help our customers get better health results and combat rising healthcare costs at www.StraightTalkLA.com

10/20/2016