Early results from OB/GYN medical practices in Florida and Texas
that participate in Cigna (NYSE: CI) Collaborative Care initiatives show
that they’re improving quality and lowering medical costs.
Cigna
Collaborative Care is a value-based initiative that uses incentives
to engage health care professionals and help drive improved health,
affordability and patient experience. It initially focused on large
primary care physician groups but was expanded
to include hospitals, small primary care practices and specialists,
including OB/GYN practices.
Through collaboration between medical practices and Cigna, the OB/GYN
program aims to reduce primary cesarean deliveries and inductions of
labor prior to 39 weeks gestation for non-medical reasons, increase the
use of generic drugs, and shift certain gynecologic surgical procedures
to less-costly sites of service. The program also focuses on the
identification and referral of at-risk pregnant women, safety
certification for office-based procedures and maternal mental health
screening.
The OB/GYN practices participating in the program are compensated with a
patient care management payment that rewards them for meeting a
comprehensive set of quality and cost efficiency targets. The payment
varies based on how well the group performs. The expectation is that
OB/GYN practices that meet their targets will have better quality scores
and better cost efficiency than other OB/GYN practices in their markets.
After its first year participating in the program, Women’s
Care Florida, with offices in Tampa and Orlando, showed significant
results:
-
15.2 percent improvement in its primary cesarean delivery rate
-
6.4 percent improvement in generic dispensing rate
-
3.7 percent rate for early elective deliveries, better than national
rate of five percent
“We are pleased to participate in this collaboration with Cigna,” said
Donald F. Wilson, M.D., chief medical officer for Women’s Care Florida.
“Properly aligned incentives help us focus on what is needed to fulfill
our mission, ‘Exceptional Women's Care for Every Patient, Every
Time’. We value meaningful partnership with health plans as we all
seek to deliver high quality care in the most efficient manner possible.”
After its first year participating in the program, Southwest
Women’s Health Alliance (formerly Obstetrical & Gynecological
Associates) in Houston also showed significant results:
-
Improved total medical cost performance by three percent
-
7.6 percent improvement in generic dispensing rate
-
93 percent overall satisfaction in patient satisfaction survey
-
9.5 percent improvement in site of service rate for outpatient
procedures, through safe and efficient shifting of site of service for
select gynecologic surgical procedures, which lowered costs while
maintaining quality
"I am proud of the commitment our doctors made in this pilot project to
make women's health care in Houston better,” said Mark Cone, M.D.,
president of Southwest Women’s Health Alliance. “We sought to improve
patient satisfaction scores, implement new patient safety programs,
improve the quality of our care by following evidence-based medicine and
lead our market in quality metrics. Furthermore, we proved we could
accomplish that and bend the total medical cost curve. I appreciate
Cigna's dedication to bringing these types of programs to the market.
Joint efforts between providers and payers like this demonstrate the
type of collaborative efforts we will need to fix the health care
delivery system.”
“The Cigna Collaborative Care model demonstrated our ability to help
large primary care physician groups improve the quality and cost of
care,” said John Keats, M.D., a Cigna senior medical director and
practicing OB/GYN specialist. “These two medical practices are pioneers
that are helping us adapt that model to OB/GYN specialty care. We’re
very pleased with their early successes and look forward to further
collaboration that will help this model evolve.”
Cigna has pilot programs with four other OB/GYN groups and expects to
launch up to six more in 2015. Once those programs have been in place
for a full year, Cigna will evaluate the results and determine how to
convert them from “test and learn” pilot programs to a standard
reimbursement model for specialty care.
When the company started Cigna Collaborative Care for large primary care
physician groups in 2008, the program consisted of one pilot that
expanded to several more pilots within a few years. “We learned from
those early efforts and used that knowledge to build a very successful
program that now encompasses more than 120 physician practices in 29
states. We hope to have similar success with OB/GYN groups and other
specialty medical practices,” Keats said.
About Cigna
Cigna Corporation (NYSE: CI) is a global health service company
dedicated to helping people improve their health, well-being and sense
of security. All products and services are provided exclusively by or
through operating subsidiaries of Cigna Corporation, including
Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, Cigna Health and Life
Insurance Company, Life Insurance Company of North America and Cigna
Life Insurance Company of New York. Such products and services include
an integrated suite of health services, such as medical, dental,
behavioral health, pharmacy, vision, supplemental benefits, and other
related products including group life, accident and disability
insurance. Cigna maintains sales capability in 30 countries and
jurisdictions, and has more than 86 million customer relationships
throughout the world. To learn more about Cigna®, including links to
follow us on Facebook or Twitter, visit www.cigna.com.
About Women’s Care Florida
Women’s Care Florida, LLC, (WCF) is a single specialty women’s health
physician group offering patient care services in Obstetrics and
Gynecology, Gynecologic Oncology, Urogynecology, Gynecologic Pathology,
Breast Surgery and Genetic Counseling. The group has 200 providers that
care for more than 350,000 patients annually at 58 outpatient locations,
including a women’s services laboratory and a breast center.
About Southwest Women’s Health Alliance
Southwest Women's Health Alliance is a private practice OB/GYN group in
the Greater Houston Area. Originally Obstetrical and Gynecological
Associates, founded in 1962, we have recently reorganized to better meet
our goals of becoming the industry leader in developing models of health
care delivery that are more affordable and more accessible. Our vision
is to provide the best patient care with a focus on four pillars: 1) a
better patient experience; 2) delivering the highest quality
evidence-based medical care; 3) ensuring the highest patient safety
standards; and 4) always looking for opportunities to make the care more
affordable for the patient and the employer. We have 52 providers
located at 22 different office and ancillary facilities
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