Blue Cross shares COVID-19 initiatives on a national stage

Primary care practices across the U.S. have faced many challenges trying to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. But thanks to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s Physician Group Incentive Program and Collaborative Quality Initiatives, Michigan providers have had a helping hand in this time of crisis.

Dr. Karolina Skrzypek, a medical director in Provider Engagement, spoke about the role Blue Cross played while serving as a panelist at a July 22 national webinar called “Secret Sauce: How Some Primary Care Practices Are Surviving COVID-19.” The event was sponsored by the Primary Care Collaborative, a nonprofit organization representing a broad group of public and private organizations that seek to promote policies and share best practices for primary care.

“Because of our strong relationships with physician practices, we were the only insurers in the state to assemble a group of providers and key stakeholders almost immediately to address the impact of COVID-19 on physicians,” Dr. Skrzypek said. “This was a way for us to hear what our providers’ needs were, and how we could adapt to meet those needs.”

Dr. Skrzypek explained why Blue Cross was in a good position to help. “The PGIP and CQI platforms have been invaluable during this crisis,” she said. “Because the PGIP platform has been in place for over a decade, we were able to quickly assemble groups of statewide providers and give them a forum to share information and best practices about dealing with the pandemic.”

In addition to hosting weekly webinars with providers, Blue Cross put in place incentives for PGIP members to support telehealth and accelerated overall incentive payments so physicians received them earlier in the year. Dr. Skrzypek shared some of the other ways Blue Cross helped providers:

Weekly webinars

For the first few months of the pandemic, PGIP hosted weekly webinars. These webinars included the following:

Leaders from the statewide provider community
Blue Cross executives
Representatives from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
Representatives from major private laboratories

Telehealth

PGIP’s practice-level telehealth incentives supported key needs for a high-functioning telehealth delivery model, including:

Encouraging delivery of telehealth services using non-HIPAA or HIPAA-compliant solutions during the COVID crisis
Supporting the use of HIPAA-compliant apps for ongoing telehealth services.
Encouraging patient-facing apps with the ability for patients to initiate and schedule visits
Strengthening HIPAA-compliant solutions that allow for information to be imported into an electronic health record.
Increasing the use of HIPAA-compliant telehealth solutions with the ability for data sharing among health care providers
Boosting behavioral health practices engaging with other providers in delivering telehealth services and consultations

Also, Blue Cross physician organization funding helped support PGIP practices in both the rapid deployment of telehealth services to address the immediate COVID-19 crisis and the implementation of a long-term telehealth strategy.

The result? The rate of use of telehealth among our primary care doctors and behavioral health providers went from 9% to over 82% in the course of five weeks once the pandemic started.

Accelerated incentives payments

Starting in April, accelerated payments to POs, organized systems of care and physician practices were made available. Accelerated funding was made available to the 40 POs, who represent the more than 20,000 primary care and specialist physicians participating in PGIP.

PGIP-affiliated POs were given expedited financial assistance so that they’d have the means to purchase equipment needed to safely test for COVID-19, treat patients successfully and to assist their physician practices in clearing other hurdles to providing care to their patients.

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