Premera Blue Cross and Covera Health Collaborate to Improve Radiology Quality and Reduce Misdiagnoses


Mountlake Terrace, Wash., Sept. 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Premera Blue Cross, a leading health plan in the Pacific Northwest, today announced an extension of its Centers of Excellence (COEs) strategy to include radiology in collaboration with Covera Health. By adding radiology, the COE program will reduce medical misdiagnoses and connect customers with the highest quality healthcare.

According to a recent whitepaper published by Covera, retrospective studies of advanced imaging technologies such as MRIs and CT scans have found error rates of 30% or more for complex diagnoses.1

Establishing COEs around the highest quality radiology practices ensures patients are on the most direct treatment path back to health and reduces the high costs associated with misdiagnoses, which are surprisingly common.

“Giving our customers access to the very best healthcare is one of our top priorities. High-quality radiology is critical to putting our members on the right healthcare track across numerous medical specialties,” said Rick Abbott, VP of Product and Market Solutions for Premera. “We believe it’s more important than ever to help our members take the guesswork out of accessing quality providers for services that can impact their health for weeks, months, or even years to come.”

Premera’s COE program provides customers with access to practices and providers who deliver superior outcomes across a range of specialties, lowering costs and improving customer engagement and higher rates of patient satisfaction with the care they receive. This program also extends COE access into local communities without the need for travel, which has been a source of concern since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Covera Health, a leading clinical-analytics solutions provider, provides the analytics at scale to deliver a nationwide network of radiology COEs.

The benefit will be available to members in Premera’s fully-insured population as well as its self-insured companies that opt into the program. This work is part of Premera’s broader designated Centers of Excellence program which includes a variety of procedures. Among them: total joint replacement (knee and hip), spine surgery, cardiac care and bariatric surgery.

1Berlin L. Radiologic errors and malpractice: a blurry distinction. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2007; 89:517–522. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/29ef/84d1fc64993ddd43d6bd672d836aa8c4ba44.pdf

About Premera Blue Cross
Premera Blue Cross is a leading health plan in the Pacific Northwest, providing comprehensive health benefits and tailored services to about 2 million people, from individuals to Fortune 100 companies.

About Covera Health
Covera Health, a leading clinical analytics company, pioneers quality-based solutions for payers and providers and reduces the high costs associated with medical misdiagnoses, in close partnership with radiology providers nationwide. Covera Health’s Radiology Centers of Excellence Program operates in all 50 states. For more information, visit www.coverahealth.com.

 

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