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Orlando Health-Florida Blue Partnership Promises Accountable Care  Florida Blue customers who visit an Orlando Health facility next year might notice a difference in the way their case is handled. The two have formed a new partnership and it's supposed to offer a new level of accountability.
[Orlando Health's downtown Orlando campus] They’re calling it an Accountable Care Arrangement- which is not to be confused with an Accountable Care Organization. ACO’s are strictly tied to Medicare. The partnership between Florida Blue and Orlando Health instead seeks to improve patient care and lower costs by changing the way care is coordinated between the insurance company and the health care provider. Orlando Health Vice President of Strategy and Clinical Integration Jennifer Endicott says right now, when a patient shows up at the hospital, the hospital might not know anything about the patient’s primary care physician or medical background. “So in the future when you come in, and you present your Florida Blue Cross card, we are going to know who you are even if you’ve never shown up in our emergency department before, because we’re going to connect medical systems across providers so we know the care you’ve been receiving from your primary care physician,” she says. Endicott says the new arrangement will also allow for a more integrated approach to health care that looks at the overall needs of the patient rather than the single episode that brought them in. She says not only will that approach improve outcomes, it will also provide the hospital with incentives for better outcomes, which should in turn help to lower costs. |
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