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Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Collaborates with Leading Physician Groups to Enhance Quality and Patient-Centered Care
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue ShieldScott Golden (804) 354-5252Twitter: @anthemPR_VA
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield announced that it has completed agreements with six large physician groups statewide to participate in a program to strengthen the role of primary care and its benefit to consumers.
In May, Anthem launched a new payment model designed to infuse primary care practices with the financial incentives and resources they need to provide greater care coordination and quality by rewarding value over volume.
“Our progress with this program shows how we and our provider partners are committed to advancing the quality and affordability of health care. We know that the physician-patient relationship is the most important one in promoting health and wellness,” said C. Burke King, president of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. “Our initiative aims to strengthen the relationship between doctors and their patients, while compensating primary care physicians more for making quality and cost effectiveness an everyday practice. We believe this will greatly benefit our members and the dedicated physicians with whom we work.”
“The structure and objective of Anthem’s patient-centered primary care initiative mirrors that of the primary care physicians in TPMG in providing quality care for our patients,” said Jennifer Sharp-Warthan, M.D., vice president of Tidewater Physicians Multispecialty Group. “We are pleased to be taking part in this important initiative.”
Anthem recently has signed physician practices across Virginia including Bayview Physicians Group, Bon Secours Medical Group, Carilion Clinic, Fairfax Family Practice Centers, Patient First and Tidewater Physicians Multispecialty Group. The six physician groups represent more than 16 percent of Anthem’s total reimbursement to primary care physicians in Virginia. Patient First represents Anthem’s largest PCP group in the state with offices in Central Virginia, Northern Virginia and the Tidewater area. Plans are underway to extend the program to include more than 20 practices across the state by April 2013.
“The Health Care Industry has long recognized that in order to provide better care for patients, we needed to move to a coordinated care model to improve outcomes while constraining unnecessary costs,” said Anthony Cetrone, M.D., chief medical officer of Bayview Physicians Group. “It turns out that utilizing tools such as an electronic health record (EHR), patient registries and evidence based medical guidelines—clarifying what works and doesn't work—improves the consistency and quality of care we deliver. To help make this transformation of care feasible, payers such as Medicare and Anthem have stepped up and are assisting physicians with building the infrastructure associated with the development of the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Practice Model and with the roll out of quality programs that ideally move us to a health care delivery system that emphasizes value over volume.”
Anthem Health Plans of Virginia, Inc. trades as Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Virginia, and its service area is all of Virginia except for the City of Fairfax, the Town of Vienna, and the area east of State Route 123. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and its affiliated HMO HealthKeepers, Inc. are independent licensees of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. ®ANTHEM is a registered trademark of Anthem Insurance Companies, Inc. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield names and symbols are registered marks of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Additional information about Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Virginia is available at . Also, follow us on Twitter at , on Facebook at , or visit our YouTube channel at .