Excellus BCBS Awards Hospitals $28 Million for Quality Improvements

SYRACUSE, NY – Thirty-one upstate New York hospitals and health centers earned a combined $28 million in quality improvement payments from Excellus BlueCross BlueShield last year as part of the nonprofit health insurer’s Hospital Performance Incentive Program. Since 2005, Excellus BCBS has paid out more than $400 million in quality improvement incentives.

“It’s part of our mission to ensure that all in our communities have equitable access to high quality health care,” says Mark Muthumbi, Central New York regional president at Excellus BCBS. “The foundation for achieving that is a collaborative relationship with our local hospital and physician partners.”

Six hospitals in Central New York participated in this program in 2022, sharing $6.4 million in quality improvement incentive payments. Participating hospitals included Auburn Community Hospital, Crouse Hospital, Guthrie Cortland Medical Center, Oswego Hospital, St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center and Upstate University Health System. 

“In 2022, Excellus BCBS’s Hospital Performance Incentive Program evaluated participating hospitals on projects that are in alignment with and responsive to the ever-changing health care environment,” says Lisa Y. Harris, MD, senior vice president and chief medical officer at Excellus BCBS. Participating hospitals and health centers met goals in the following areas:

• Clinical Processes of Care – Focused on improvements in follow up after hospitalization; quality measures related to diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and surgical care; and other quality improvement measures unique to each participating hospital,
• Patient Safety – Centered on reductions in hospital-acquired infections, readmissions, and other adverse events or errors that affect patient care,
• Patient Satisfaction – Used the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey, which is a national, standardized, publicly reported survey of patients’ perspectives of hospital care.

In addition to meeting required clinical and patient safety measures in 2022, other nationally endorsed measures and target outcomes were jointly agreed upon by each hospital and the health insurer using benchmarks established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,  the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and others.                     

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Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, is a nonprofit health plan with 1.5 million upstate New York members. The company's mission is to help people live healthier and more secure lives through access to high-quality, affordable health care. Its products and services include cost-saving prescription drug discounts, wellness tracking tools and access to telemedicine. With more than 4,200 employees, the company is committed to attracting and retaining a diverse workforce to foster innovation and better serve its members. It also encourages employees to engage in their communities by providing paid volunteer time off as one of many benefits. To learn more, visit ExcellusBCBS.com.