San Francisco-based Blue Shield of California Foundation (BSCF) has awarded a $1,328,000 medical technologies grant to the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA, Oakland, Calif.) to implement statewide collection of comparative data, evaluate purchasing and payment systems and develop a new, episode-based payment method for medical device purchasing.
According to the foundation, the grant will help to align physician and hospital interests that are now divided through the practice of direct-to-physician vendor incentives. It is part of the foundation’s health and technology program strategy to promote evidence-based clinical best practice and technology adoption among California providers, it states.
The episode-based payment method will be piloted by at least one health plan with participating hospitals, and these experiences will be documented and disseminated to health plans and providers with statewide support from key stakeholders, BSCF said.
