In brief: Transitional care program and unconscious bias education

Nonclinical, transitional care program aims to reduce readmissions for Medicare Advantage members

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are contracting with naviHealth, an independent company, to reduce avoidable inpatient readmissions through a nonclinical, transitional care program.

This program will be available to Medicare Plus Blue℠ and BCN Advantage℠ members who are discharged from inpatient facilities in Michigan and will be implemented in two phases:

• On Nov. 1, 2021, the program starts for Medicare Advantage members who are discharged to certain post-acute care facilities in Southeast Michigan. (We piloted this program starting in April 2021, as communicated in the May 2021 issue of The Record.)
• On Feb. 1, 2022, the program starts for Medicare Advantage members who are discharged directly to their homes.

To read more, see the November Record article.

More than 5,000 PCMH providers complete unconscious bias education

Last fall, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan rolled out unconscious bias education for providers through the Physician Group Incentive Program. Overall, PGIP physician organizations reported that 5,012 Patient-Centered Medical Home and primary care providers completed unconscious bias education within the last nine months.

Unconscious, or implicit, bias is a prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person or group that is based on stereotypes or generalizations. The purpose of this education was to increase awareness among providers and help to reduce unconscious bias in health care and positively affect clinical decision-making, patient experience and safety.

According to the National Academy of Medicine,* studies show that minority populations experience a lower quality of health care despite the improvements in the overall health of the country. For example, one study of 400 hospitals in the U.S. showed that African American patients were less likely to receive coronary bypass operations and angiography, and post-surgery, they were discharged before their nonminority counterparts and earlier than medically appropriate.

*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.