St. Francis HealthCare Partners (SFHCP) and UnitedHealthcare are collaborating on an effort to improve care coordination and health services through a new accountable care relationship. More than 8,500 Connecticut residents enrolled in UnitedHealthcare’s employer-sponsored and Oxford health plans will be able to participate in the program, according to a joint news release today.
SFHCP is a partnership between St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center and an integrated network of primary care and specialty physicians.
The SFHCP-UnitedHealthcare partnership will expand on the work that began a few years ago focusing on UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage members. The collaboration continues to shift Connecticut’s healthcare system to one that rewards quality and value instead of the volume of procedures performed.
Care providers nationwide are showing strong interest in a shift to value-based care, the release said. UnitedHealthcare’s total payments to physicians and hospitals that are tied to value-based arrangements have tripled in the last three years to $43 billion. UnitedHealthcare expects that figure to reach $65 billion by the end of 2018.
UnitedHealthcare will complement SFHCP’s own data by providing additional support needed to manage overall population health, including technology and information that will help SFHCP-affiliated physicians take specific actions to improve quality and lower costs.
Under the program physicians will be eligible to receive payment incentives based on patient satisfaction, achieving certain evidence-based measures – such as hospital readmission rates, disease management and prevention, and patient safety – as well as total cost savings.
