UNC Joins Major Health Care Providers, Insurer for Alternative Approach

UNC Health Care and four other major North Carolina health care systems will join with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina to adopt a new, alternative model of care that they hope will cut down on inefficiency, lower costs and improve care for patients.

The Blue Premier program, which was unveiled at the Blue Cross headquarters in Durham on Tuesday, is a value-based care model that changes the way hospitals and doctors are reimbursed for services they provide to patients.

Previously, healthcare providers were reimbursed using a fee-for-service payment model. That meant every service rendered to a patient, every office visit or procedure, was billed separately. As a result, healthcare experts say, fee-for-service payment models incentivize quantity over quality.

At the press conference announcing Blue Premier, BCBSNC President and CEO Patrick Conway acknowledged the wider issues facing healthcare in this country.

“Our top priority is the health of the people we serve,” he said. “And let’s face it, our health system -I think we can all agree- is not delivering the best kind of outcomes at the lowest cost.”

He said this new program represents one of the most comprehensive shifts to value-based payments methods in the nation. And with hundreds of thousands of customers under the five participating health systems, that’s no exaggeration. BCBSNC said they wanted to have all of their customers covered under Blue Premier contracts in the next five years.

CEO of UNC Health Care Dr. Wesley Burks said at the announcement that this new program brings new changes for UNC patients. But importantly, he noted, it doesn’t change the ability of patients to see their preferred primary care physician.

So what will patients notice that is different? Better communication between their different providers, Burks said.

“That will feel different for them. It will take them a while to feel that, but they will see that difference in communication that will allow them to experience that better patient experience. That will allow them to have better outcomes eventually. That will allow them, again, to lower their costs.”