Fresenius Medical Care North America teams with Cigna on collaborative care initiative

Cigna and Fresenius Medical Care North America have launched a national program to drive quality and lower the cost of care for people with end-stage renal disease who are undergoing dialysis.

The program is part of Cigna Collaborative Care, a value-based model that uses incentives to engage health care providers and helps drive improved health, affordability, patient satisfaction and provider experience. Cigna Collaborative Care initially focused on large primary care physician groups and later expanded to include hospitals, smaller primary care practices and specialists.

Under the new initiative, FMCNA will continue to be paid for the kidney dialysis services it provides to its Cigna patients, while its affiliate, Fresenius Health Partners, will assume separate responsibility to provide management of medical costs and to improve patient outcomes.

FMCNA may be eligible for additional reimbursement if it achieves these goals so long as the dialysis clinics maintain or improve their star ratings in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) quality rating. Cigna will evaluate outcomes for a number of quality measures which correlate directly to the total cost of care and overall patient experience.

One of the program’s goals is to reduce emergency room use and hospital admission for dialysis by keeping patients healthier and providing them with additional access to dialysis at Fresenius Kidney Care outpatient facilities as needed.

Read the full story at Nephrology News.