Value Partnerships featured in national ABIM Building Trust initiative

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s Value Partnerships portfolio was featured as a trust-building practice in the American Board of Internal Medicine’s Building Trust Initiative.

The initiative, launched in May, recognizes the importance of trust in health care. The ABIM considers it essential to better collaboration among health professionals and better health outcomes for patients.

Through the buildingtrust.org* website, ABIM is sharing trust-building practices from health systems across the U.S. so that health professionals can learn what works and implement successful practices locally.

The widespread recognition of Value Partnerships’ efforts and successes led to its selection as a trust-building practice. Since the Value Partnerships portfolio launched in 2005, participation has grown to more than 20,000 physicians and more than 130 hospitals statewide. The results of the Value Partnerships program are routinely published in peer-reviewed literature and have been profiled internationally on five continents in more than 30 countries.

“The learnings and best practices shared through Value Partnerships affect the care provided to all Michigan patients, and many of these best practices are disseminated widely across the nation through peer-reviewed literature,” said Tom Leyden, director II, Value Partnerships “This positively affects our members wherever they may be receiving care.”

Value Partnerships’ structure emphasizes collaboration among participants and engages health care providers in the design of new care processes. This approach differentiates the portfolio from other quality improvement or quality incentive programs, and enables Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan to build strong relationships with its provider partners.

One of the key program areas within Value Partnerships is the Collaborative Quality Initiatives, or CQIs. Through these initiatives, hospitals and physicians across the state collect, share and analyze data, then design and implement changes to improve patient care, decrease complications and lower costs in the most common and costly areas of medical and hospital care.

Addressing the COVID-19 pandemic

While the Value Partnerships portfolio has been around for more than 15 years, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that truly showcased how the Value Partnerships philosophy and structure leverages the longstanding trust among Blue Cross and its provider partners. Within weeks of the pandemic hitting Michigan, more than 500 nurses and physicians from hospitals across Michigan began collecting clinical data on hospitalized COVID-19 patients to address the pandemic and identify best practices for treating patients.

“Hospitals and providers saw a need and voluntarily jumped in to work together and solve their shared challenges,” Leyden said. “That shows they trust each other and the Value Partnerships collaborative structure.”

Over the next several months, the ABIM will spotlight the Value Partnerships’ trust‑building practices through webinars, social media, articles and the buildingtrust.org* website.

*Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan doesn’t own or control this website.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are nonprofit corporations and independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.