Five hospital systems that together represent 24 Michigan hospitals have joined or expanded their participation in Detroit-based Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s value-based hospital reimbursement model. Similar to the accountable care organization (ACO) idea of lowering costs while improving quality through better care coordination and a focus on outcomes, the new model requires the hospitals to “identify their provider partners in the community and work with them to develop and implement an infrastructure plan that includes an all-patient registry system that allows caregivers at the hospital and in the physician offices to measure an individual’s health performance against similar populations.”

Joining for the first time were Botsford Hospital in Farmington Hills, Mich., Oakwood Healthcare, which has hospitals in Dearborn, Taylor, Wayne and Trenton, Mich., and MidMichigan Health, which has facilities in Midland, Gladwin, Clare and Alma, Mich. Expanding a previous reimbursement arrangement to additional hospitals in their systems were Ascension Health Michigan and Beaumont Health.

The additions and expansions bring the total number of health systems participating in the new reimbursement model with BCBS of Michigan to seven. CHE Trinity Health-Michigan, and Munson Healthcare joined last year.

Like a traditional ACO, the participating systems stand to share in any savings achieved from use of the new model.

“Instead of paying solely for the volume of services provided, we can now leverage our reimbursement approach to incentivize collaboration and focus on rewarding patient outcomes,” said Susan Barkell, senior vice president for Health Care Value at BCBS of Michigan in a press release.