Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma (BCBSOK) and INTEGRIS Health are pleased to announce they have reached a new longer-term agreement ensuring all INTEGRIS Health facilities will remain in the BCBSOK network.
“Our goal with this agreement is to impact our state’s overall health, in alignment with Governor Stitt’s bold vision to make Oklahoma a top 10 state,” said Timothy Pehrson, President and CEO of INTEGRIS. “As newly appointed leaders of both INTEGRIS Health, the state’s largest health system, and BCBSOK, the state’s largest health insurer, we came to the table and asked, “what can we do to help improve Oklahoma’s health ranking?” This is a daunting task given our state currently ranks 47 out of 50 in overall health.”
He added, “As we collaborated and brainstormed together, it was decided that a tighter relationship between our two organizations would be critical to create the necessary building blocks to advance the health of Oklahomans”.
“This new agreement obligates both of our organizations to jointly develop new value-based care capabilities that emphasize improving health outcomes of our members and patients. Value-based care is an innovative health care delivery and payment model that incentivizes health care providers and hospital systems to focus on their patient’s health outcomes. The traditional fee-for-service model that is currently used simply pays for the care completed, regardless of the outcome,” explained Joseph R. Cunningham, M.D., BCBSOK President.
“There are no other industries where a consumer continues to pay the same price, regardless of the quality of the service or result of the service they’re purchasing. That’s essentially what value-based care is aiming to change. What this means for BCBSOK members who are INTEGRIS patients is that the care received from these joint efforts will be more collaborative, coordinated and focused on better health outcomes.”
An exciting component of the unprecedented five-year contract is that for the first time, INTEGRIS providers will be included in the Blue Advantage PPOSM. The effective date of that offering is expected to be Sept. 1, 2019. Members in the Blue TraditionalSM, Blue Choice PPOSM, Blue Preferred PPOSM, BlueLincs HMOSM and Blue Plan65 SelectSM will continue to receive in-network benefit levels at INTEGRIS.
This innovative relationship alone will not move Oklahoma to a top 10 state; however, it does lay the foundation to begin a long-term transformational journey. In addition, INTEGRIS and BCBSOK are committed to working jointly with state officials, health agencies, businesses, communities and others to achieve this goal.