In 2018, Henry Ford Health announced an innovative partnership between the Michigan-based health system and General Motors (GM), one of the state's largest employers.
The ConnectedCare plan, which launched the following year, allowed some GM employees and their families to receive customized health care from Henry Ford Health without needing to go through traditional insurance models. The goal of the value-based care arrangement was to lower costs and improve the overall health and well-being of plan participants.
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In that initial announcement, Adnan Munkarah, MD, who was executive vice president and chief clinical officer at Henry Ford Health at the time, stated that one of the key aspects to improving health is a long-term patient-physician relationship.
Seven years later, the importance of a long-term relationship is as important as ever, as Jerry Finkel, MD, senior vice president, chief medical officer of value-based enterprise, and chief primary health officer at Henry Ford Health, explained in a recent episode of “AMA Update.”
"The best word to describe [our arrangement] is 'partnership,'" Dr. Finkel said. "It allows us to customize the program. It allows us to share goals. It allows us to drive value and also for us to be able to share the benefits of that value. So that partnership is really a differentiator for us."
Custom care for GM employees
Value-based care is meant to improve patient outcomes and experiences, advance health equity, deliver health care services at a reasonable cost, and support the well-being of the health care workforce.
The design of ConnectedCare allows Henry Ford Health to offer custom benefits from physicians to GM employees and their families—and do so directly with GM.
"We know how hard it can be to navigate the health care delivery system," Dr. Finkel said. "What we were asked by GM is to provide a way for their employees to have a simplified way of managing their access to the health care delivery system."
Because of the arrangement, Henry Ford Health was able to offer a number of distinct benefits to GM employees. For example, Henry Ford Health developed a concierge contact line exclusively for GM employee calls to provide assistance with navigating patient needs.
Similarly, Henry Ford Health leadership knew the population of GM employees had a higher frequency of musculoskeletal conditions than a standard group. With that knowledge, the health system customized programs for the population that specifically targeted musculoskeletal injuries.
"There's so many benefits that really relate to the ability to customize the program specifically for particular employees," Dr. Finkel said.
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Navigating challenges and risks
Creating a value-based care offering like ConnectedCare inherently comes with risks.
GM provides the ConnectedCare product to its employees at a lower cost than some of its other coverage products. Meanwhile, Henry Ford Health provides additional services and support to GM employees but holds costs below an established annual limit.
Henry Ford Health has compared GM employees enrolled in ConnectedCare with a similar group of employees who are not a part of the plan. The results show significant savings and significant enhancements in the quality-of-care ConnectedCare employees receive, according to Dr. Finkel.
Dr. Finkel said the type of arrangement between GM and Henry Ford Health works well for large companies that can evaluate their employee populations and understand the care that's needed. The partnership also works because Henry Ford Health covers much of the area where GM employees live and work, he said.
"In the future, there might be opportunities even for smaller companies to come together to enjoy the benefits of being able to communicate directly with their providers to help them to understand what's important for you as an employee, as a family, as a corporation," Dr. Finkel said.
A commitment to value-based care
ConnectedCare is just one of the ways Henry Ford Health is focused on improving health outcomes in its communities.
"Patients who need the most challenging, most complex type of care, we have that available," Dr. Finkel said. "At the same time, we have completely transformed primary care into a very proactive model."
Henry Ford Health leverages a sophisticated algorithm to identify at-risk patients—including those who may not know themselves that they are at risk. If those patients need immediate care, they are able to receive on-site or virtual care from any of the system's primary care physicians and their teams.
The health system has urgent care centers throughout the Metropolitan Detroit area and also has a group provider available for a virtual visit 24 hours a day.
"So many things that we're doing, such as bringing physicians together, are really important to create a seamlessly coordinated and integrated enterprise. We are enhancing patient management by sharing best practices and services within our physician network, which allows us to drive health in the communities we serve," Dr. Finkel said. "And of course, that includes our General Motors employees and their families."
Learn more with the AMA about value-based care, including ways to improve data sharing and best practices for payment methods.
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