HealthPartners join White House effort to find better ways to pay for care

HHS 'Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network' kicks off March 25

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — March 25, 2015 — HealthPartners today announced that it has signed on to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) effort that will look at ways to pay providers for quality, rather than the quantity of care they provide to patients. The Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network, which will hold its first meeting on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., includes private payers, employers, consumers, providers, states and state Medicaid programs, and other partners to expand alternative payment models into their programs.

“HealthPartners and other Minnesota health care organizations have been working for many years to develop and implement meaningful, performance-based reform that rewards health care providers based on value and patient outcomes, rather than volume of services provided,” said Charles Fazio, MD, MS, Health Plan Medical Director. “Payment policy is an important part of a comprehensive approach to health care reform in the United States. We look forward to working together in this forum to share our work, learn from others in the network and to evolve those payment approaches that reward performance, quality and value.”

HealthPartners is a national leader in developing health care cost of care and resource use measures. Today, more than 85 percent of HealthPartners members receive care from care systems in Triple Aim contract arrangements using the organization’s Total Cost of Care tool. Total Cost of Care contracts are designed on value-based, shared savings and risk models, where care systems that deliver exceptional cost and quality are rewarded with a portion of financial savings and, conversely, those savings are at risk if providers do not meet cost and quality targets.

The HealthPartners Total Cost of Care measure, which is foundational to payment reform initiatives HealthPartners began several years ago, was the first of its kind to be endorsed by the National Quality Forum in 2012. It is publically available at no charge and has been licensed for use by 120 organizations in 32 states.

Another example of payment reform at HealthPartners is Park Nicollet’s Pioneer Accountable Care Organization, which began in 2011. The ACO, which cares for 12,100 Medicare patients, met or exceeded goals on 33 quality measures in 2013 improving care and efficiency that reduced medical costs by $3.1 million.