For more information contact:
Kelly Cannon
816.395.3711 Kelly.Cannon@BlueKC.com
Children’s Health Network
Bob Finuf
816-559-9370
bfinuf@cmpcn.org
KANSAS CITY, MO. (December 19, 2017) — Children’s Health Network (CHN) and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC) have teamed up to offer patient-focused healthcare to children and adolescents in the Kansas City area. The three-year agreement is built on Blue KC’s Medical Home Program, a part of the national Blue Distinction Total Care Initiative.
The agreement includes 40,000 of Blue KC’s employer-based and individual members. This patient-centered care model is designed to reward physicians for lowering health care costs while improving quality for their patients.
“Blue KC is committed to providing innovative solutions to bring effective, high-quality care to our members while holding the line on costs. The agreement with Children’s Health Network allows us to expand our patient-focused initiatives in a meaningful way for Kansas City families,” said Dr. Greg Sweat, Chief Medical Officer for Blue KC.
Bob Finuf, Children’s Mercy Vice President and Executive Director of CHN said, “CHN believes value-based payment arrangements like this agreement with Blue KC foster integration between independent, community and health system providers and serve to align the incentives for better coordinated care. CHN is uniquely qualified to bring like-minded providers together to operate a network whose sole focus is on pediatric patients.”
About Children’s Health Network
Children’s Health Network (CHN) was formed in 2015 and is a clinically integrated network of 179 primary care Pediatric providers and 750 Children’s Mercy pediatric specialists distributed across 36 practice locations in the Kansas City area. CHN’s objective is to deliver high-value and integrated care that meets the Triple Aim for children by:
- Improving the patient experience of care that includes quality outcomes and patient satisfaction
- Improving the health of the target population
- Reducing the per capita cost of health care
CHN believes valued-based payment models and clinical integration between independent, community-based providers and health system providers are necessary to align incentives and create an integrated and coordinated care delivery model dedicated to keeping children healthy. Learn more about Children’s Health Network at https://www.cmics.org/chn/.
About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, the largest not-for-profit health insurer in Missouri and the only not-for-profit commercial health insurer in Kansas City, has been part of the Kansas City community since 1938. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City provides health coverage services to more than one million residents in the greater Kansas City area, including Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas and 30 counties in Northwest Missouri. Our mission: to use our role as the area’s leading health insurer to provide affordable access to health care and to improve the health of our members. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. For more information on the company, visit its website at BlueKC.com.
