ANN ARBOR, MI — (Marketwired) — 10/25/13 — , a leading provider of real-time healthcare analytics, today announced that the Michigan Value Collaborative (MVC) chose its fully integrated, cloud-based clinical analytics platform to power meaningful analysis and decision support for the first statewide episodic bundled payment initiative in Michigan.
MVC, a collaborative quality initiative (CQI) founded and funded by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM), is the nation-s first state-wide initiative to analyze claims data to identify risk-adjusted variations in hospital payments for an episode of care. More than 50 hospitals belong to the consortium.
MVC aims to improve healthcare quality across Michigan through rigorous performance feedback, empirical identification of best practices, and collaborative learning. The MVC is unique in that it will:
1) Engage hospital executives and leaders in addition to clinicians,
2) Assess care patterns and practice variations from a multi-specialty perspective, and
3) Focus on improving and optimizing cost-efficiency and care transitions around episodes of hospitalization.
“The shift to outcomes-focused care aimed at optimizing value requires coordination and communication through actionable intelligence that improves quality and minimizes complications and errors, all while controlling costs,” said David Share, MD, MPH, Senior Vice President of Value Partnerships at BCBSM. “ArborMetrix will provide the data we need to help make decisions that will improve quality and outcomes.”
Launched in March 2013, MVC will deploy ArborMetrix-s clinical analytics to improve quality, outcomes and the cost-effectiveness of care. To improve patient health and reduce costs, MVC sought a way to analyze the care processes and outcomes for complex and highly technical areas of care. With the ArborMetrix platform, MVC will be able to profile 20 common inpatient conditions and procedures including bariatric, cardiac, general, and vascular surgeries and peripheral arterial interventions.
As part of healthcare reform, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and other insurers are moving from a fee-for-service to a fee-for-value approach that may incorporate shared risk arrangements. Under bundled payment models, hospitals and accountable care organizations (ACOs) will receive a lump sum payment from payers to be split among all parties involved in a defined episode of care, instead of being paid individually. Therefore, it will be essential to gain insights into episodes of care and the best way to improve quality and cost-effectiveness.
They also work closely with other CQI programs sponsored by . Like MVC, many CQIs use ArborMetrix-s clinical registries and work collaboratively with providers to collect, analyze and share data to enhance care processes and eliminate variability in care.
“The positive effect that transparency and communication can have on improving the care delivery system is incredible,” said Brett Furst, CEO of ArborMetrix. “Once again I applaud Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan for taking this -vanguard- approach toward improving healthcare efficiency in Michigan.”
Funded by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and administered by the University of Michigan Health System, the Michigan Value Collaborative brings hospitals across the state together to develop best practices and reduce variability for 20 types of health care episodes. The hospitals affiliated with the MVC share data to find links between medical or surgical processes and patient outcomes, then create new processes that reduce errors, prevent complications and improve patient care. Targeted episodes include bariatric, cardiac, general, and vascular surgeries, and percutaneous coronary and peripheral arterial interventions. For more information on Collaborative Quality Initiatives, please visit . Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is a nonprofit corporation and independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. For more news and information go to
, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., is a healthcare analytics and software firm specializing in quality measurement, cost-efficiency and performance improvement for surgical and other acute hospital and specialty-based care. The company focuses on developing rigorous data analysis and actionable business intelligence solutions that raise the bar on quality, performance, utilization and cost-efficiency for hospitals, health systems, specialty societies, quality collaboratives and health plans. ArborMetrix-s unique, cloud-based technology evolved from groundbreaking research by the company founders on improving the quality of surgical care and econometric performance measurement. For more information, visit , email or call 734-661-7944, ext. 7008.
Amendola Communications for Jan Shulman
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