The state’s largest insurance company Blue Cross has increased its stake in the holding company behind a two-year-old primary care clinic that aims to keep patients healthier, including heading off trips to costly emergency rooms and hospital beds.
Blue Cross has invested nearly $37 million in Think since, October 2013 because they believe in the Think model.
Think was designed as a new system of health care in which doctors, pharmacists, and other healthcare providers work together to keep patients out of costly emergency rooms and hospital beds.
Dr. Joann Schaefer, executive vice president of Blue Cross, said,
“It’s a startup. It needs an infusion of cash. It’s not unusual for a startup to need that. We see great value in what they’re doing. That’s why we’re trying to help. This is a temporary situation.”
The insurance company, she said, has supported efforts to bolster primary care across the state including backing patient-centered medical homes.
Schaefer said Blue Cross for years have provided care coordination, employing nurses and others to contact such patients who have recently been diagnosed with cancer or met an accident to make sure that they’ve been able to get their prescriptions and that they understand hospital discharge orders.
Building that kind of infrastructure in doctors’ offices, she said, is challenging in several respects.
Brennan said,
“Securing startup funds can be hard, especially for smaller or rural ACOs (Accountable Care Organizations).”
Initially, it was a rough start for Think with management changes, layoffs and lower than anticipated use of its in-house pharmacy.
Schaefer said all the ACOs and patient-centered medical homes Blue Cross works with are doing a good job. But Think is at the top of the list.
“They are knocking it out of the park,” she said.
A report provided by Blue Cross comparing Think’s scores on the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set from February 2016 to Jan. 31 indicated that the clinic outperformed three peers ACOs and a national benchmark on four measures of health care quality relevant to all clinics.
The measures involved making sure patients taking medications for high blood pressure had annual appointments, that those with diabetes received a blood glucose test and that antibiotics were prescribed appropriately for bronchitis. The complete data set includes a number of additional measures.
Date: June 26, 2017
Image Credit: cnorthopedics.com