Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois and Illinois Gastroenterology Group in Elgin have partnered to create an intensive medical home program focused on Crohn's disease. Here are six things to know about the program and its partners.
1. Intensive medical homes are designed to improve patient access, care coordination and chronic illness management. The BCBSIL and Illinois Gastroenterology Group program will focus on the highest risk Crohn's disease patients.
2. Illinois Gastroenterology Group created its own care management tool to improve patient communication. Project Sonar incorporates the practice's secure patient portal and smartphone technology to assess how patients are managing their condition between face-to-face visits. "Studies have shown that the rate of…complications decreases with improved patient communications," said Illinois Gastroenterology Group physician Lawrence Kosinski, MD, MBA.
3. Project Sonar generates a score indicating patient symptom intensity, based on monthly questions. This allows physicians to intervene earlier than a patient may have initiated, decreasing the instance of emergency department visits, hospitalization rates and complications.
4. "The IMG is a first step for providers that aren't able to be part of a larger accountable care organization, but do want to be part of a value-based care model. This Specialty IMH arrangement with IGG represents a continuing shift in the evolving nature of how we pay for medical services, and it moves reimbursement away from fee-for-service payments to those that are payments for value," said Walter Hollinger, MD, medical director of strategic operations at BCBSIL.
5. BCBSIL has 7.5 million members. The payer intends to launch an additional two intensive medical homes this year.
6. Illinois Gastroenterology Group is the largest single-specialty GI practice in Illinois. The group includes six ambulatory surgery centers and 12 office locations.
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1. Intensive medical homes are designed to improve patient access, care coordination and chronic illness management. The BCBSIL and Illinois Gastroenterology Group program will focus on the highest risk Crohn's disease patients.
2. Illinois Gastroenterology Group created its own care management tool to improve patient communication. Project Sonar incorporates the practice's secure patient portal and smartphone technology to assess how patients are managing their condition between face-to-face visits. "Studies have shown that the rate of…complications decreases with improved patient communications," said Illinois Gastroenterology Group physician Lawrence Kosinski, MD, MBA.
3. Project Sonar generates a score indicating patient symptom intensity, based on monthly questions. This allows physicians to intervene earlier than a patient may have initiated, decreasing the instance of emergency department visits, hospitalization rates and complications.
4. "The IMG is a first step for providers that aren't able to be part of a larger accountable care organization, but do want to be part of a value-based care model. This Specialty IMH arrangement with IGG represents a continuing shift in the evolving nature of how we pay for medical services, and it moves reimbursement away from fee-for-service payments to those that are payments for value," said Walter Hollinger, MD, medical director of strategic operations at BCBSIL.
5. BCBSIL has 7.5 million members. The payer intends to launch an additional two intensive medical homes this year.
6. Illinois Gastroenterology Group is the largest single-specialty GI practice in Illinois. The group includes six ambulatory surgery centers and 12 office locations.
More articles on gastroenterology:
Metropolitan Gastroenterology Group to expand outpatient office
CMS to cover stool DNA test Cologuard
Balloon colonoscope improves polyp detection