Launched in 2015, Blue Distinction® Total Care (BDTC)
identifies physicians, group practices, and hospitals participating in local
value-based programs designed to improve health outcomes and lower cost trends
through better coordination of care with providers receiving value-based
payments associated with both quality and cost outcomes rather than traditional
fee-for-service payments. At the end of 2019, the Blue Cross Blue Shield
Association (BCBSA), an association of independent Blue
Cross® and Blue Shield® plans, removed
the Blue Distinction® branding from the BDTC program, renaming
it the Total Care (TC) program.
This change was made to minimize market confusion from including both
Specialty Care and Total Care programs under the Blue
Distinction® designation and to maintain the brand equity of
Blue Distinction® as it relates to Blue Distinction®
Specialty Care, our centers of excellence program.
Impact to the value-based programs
Independence’s primary care value-based incentive programs, the
Quality Incentive Payment System (QIPS) program, the Preventive and Quality
Improvement Program (PQIP), and the Primary Care Advancement Model (PCAM) have
been designated as BDTC programs by the BCBSA. Going forward, as with BDTC,
QIPS will be identified as TC programs and providers who participate in these
programs will be identified as TC providers.
Note: As previously communicated, beginning with measurement year
2020, Independence has consolidated all primary care value-based incentive
programs under one: QIPS program.
2020 TC+ provider update
Independence has completed its evaluation of its TC providers (providers
participating in QIPS/PQIP/PCAM) for the Total Care+ (TC+) designation for
2020. TC+ recognizes those TC providers who demonstrate higher quality care at
a lower cost than the other TC program participants. Independence’s TC+
providers were identified using an established methodology that considered
BCBSA’s national selection criteria and a provider’s PPO
performance in the QIPS program, PQIP, or PCAM during measurement year 2018
(top 50 percent in the Quality Performance Measurement score program and top 50
percent in cost efficiency measures).
Providers who met the qualifications to be designated as TC+ will be sent a
recognition letter in the first quarter of 2020. This recognition will last for
one year and all TC providers will be evaluated annually using the methodology
stated above for the TC+ designation.
We are currently working to update the Independence website to reflect the
new naming convention from BDTC to TC. In addition, the Independence and BCBSA
provider finder tools are being updated to replace the BDTC and BDTC+ logos
with new TC and TC+ logos. An update will be communicated via Partners in
Health UpdateSM once all the changes have been completed.
Learn more
For more information about Total Care, as well as the name change, please
visit the Total Care page.
Independence Blue Cross is an independent licensee of
the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.