Blue Distinction^®

When it comes to your clients' employees, anything less than the best is not an option. Now more than ever, your clients' employees need real facts so they can make smart choices about their health care. That's why we built Blue Distinction — our designation program for specialty care.

Blue Distinction improves the quality of care your clients' employees receive by recognizing health care facilities that provide better overall care. Its focus is on high-volume, high-risk and high-cost specialty care, such as:

• Bariatric surgery
• Cardiac care
• Transplants
• Complex and rare cancers
• Knee and hip replacement
• Spine surgery

Even more programs are in development.

Team Work is Critical

Early on, we worked with doctors and health care organizations to develop a set of quality measures, which are designed to inform us of the facilities that deliver better overall patient results. These measures include:

• Patient results
• Treatment expertise
• Procedure volume
• Set structures and processes that support patients

This gives your employees, and you, comfort in knowing that Blue Distinction is a reliable resource for finding specialty care. Research shows it works. Blue Distinction Centers^® produce better overall results and save lives, as well as provide cost savings.

Encourage your clients and their employees to use Provider Finder to identify Blue Distinction Centers in their area.

A National Solution

Our quality measures are used with facilities all over the country, so your clients' employees can depend on Blue Distinction Centers no matter where they live or travel. See our map of 1,600 centers across 46 states to find locations.

Contact your Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL) representative to find out how to build benefit plans around Blue Distinction treatment centers.

Blue Distinction Facts

With more than 70 years of experience, BCBSIL is in a unique position to drive quality improvement. Here are some quick facts about Blue Distinction:

• 33 percent of people searching for health care can't find the facts or quality they need to make an informed decision
• Employers pay an estimated $1,900 to $2,500 each year per covered employee for poor quality health care
• Blue Distinction's specialty areas account for more than 30 percent of total inpatient hospital costs
• 77 percent of national accounts say they prefer designations focus only on quality
• 77 percent of doctors say designations matter when selecting one hospital over another for their patients
• For every 1,000 cardiac bypass surgeries, 10 more people who chose Blue Distinction Centers are alive one month after surgery
• On average, angioplasties cost $2,500 less and bypass surgeries cost $2,200 less at Blue Distinction Centers
• The fastest growing bariatric procedure, laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding, costs an average 11 percent less at Blue Distinction Centers
• There is a 26 percent lower complication rate for bariatric surgeries and a 22 percent lower readmission rate for lap gastric bypass
• For every 1,000 adult heart transplants, 80 more people who chose Blue Distinction Centers are alive one year after surgery