Anthem Ohio In CPC Initiative

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Ohio will begin working with 75 physician practices in the Cincinnati and Dayton regions as part of a Medicare pilot project.

The Ohio Blues and the practices were selected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to participate in the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative. The objective is to improve the primary care Medicare Advantage enrollees receive in order to cut down on more expensive hospitalizations. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services chose 500 primary care medical groups in seven regions to participate in the pilot.

Under the program, the providers will be paid an additional fee from CMS averaging about $20 per member per month to improve and better coordinate primary care services.

Altogether, CMS has selected more than 2,100 providers who serve 313,000 Medicare enrollees in eight states. The Cincinnati/Dayton/Kentucky region is the only Midwest area selected.

“Anthem and CMS are aligned in our commitment to improve the accessibility and affordability of quality healthcare for all Americans, and we believe

the CPC initiative represents a significant means by which we will achieve this. Anthem supports a patient-centered, primary care practitioner approach to healthcare delivery,” said Barry Malinowski, M.D., Anthem Ohio’s medical director. “For example, we’ve already seen successes in improving the quality of health care from earlier Ohio based pilot programs with the same patient-centered approach.”