Media Release: March 22, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 22, 2011
Contact for BCBSF: Mark S. Wright
Phone: (904) 905-6935
Cell: (904) 233-3481
Email: mark.wright@bcbsfl.com
Contact for MSI: Arnon Krongrad, MD
Phone: (305) 936-9188
Cell: (305) 790-2363
Email: ak@emeseye.com
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Signs Bundled Surgical Services Agreement with Mobile Surgery International
Arrangement offers affordable, high-quality radical prostatectomy services for BCBSF members
JACKSONVILLE and AVENTURA, Fla. — In its continuing effort to bring affordable and high quality health care solutions to its members, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSF) has reached an agreement and initiated an innovative pilot program with Mobile Surgery International (MSI), through which MSI will deliver its transparently priced, bundled, minimally invasive, laparoscopic radical prostatectomy surgery service packages to BCBSF members. Initially, these packages will be available in South Florida, but further geographic expansion of these service packages is under development.
The bundled service arrangement will include quality-focused, patient-centric, “no wait” support, education, and service, appropriate supplies, and everything necessary for conduct of the radical prostatectomy and related procedures: surgeon, surgeon’s assistant, operative technical team, anesthesia, pathology, nursing care, operating room, recovery room, medications, and room and board. The arrangement will bring value and administrative simplification for BCBSF and for its members.
“BCBSF is constantly seeking opportunities to offer innovative, high quality, high value services to its members,” said Jonathan Gavras, M.D., senior vice president and chief medical officer for BCBSF. “This agreement with MSI provides BCBSF with a unique opportunity to pilot a 21st Century business model that offers high-quality and convenient patient care for a common type of surgery within a value-generating bundled payment agreement.”
Radical prostatectomy involves the surgical removal of the prostate gland and the seminal vesicles and is a standard treatment for localized prostate cancer. Minimally invasive, laparoscopic radical prostatectomy – which was first carried out on a regular clinical basis in the U.S. by Arnon Krongrad, M.D., the chief executive officer of MSI – is performed through tiny punctures in the abdomen. It is associated with reduced pain, less intraoperative bleeding, and shorter recovery times than traditional open radical prostatectomy.
“Development of this agreement has allowed us to work closely with BCBSF to address some of the challenges that even Florida’s largest payer faces in offering treatment choice, clinical quality, and value,” said Dr. Krongrad. “BCBSF’s ‘can-do’ attitude and innovative spirit has allowed us to initiate a partnership based on a first set of bundled surgical services as we continue to innovate and learn from each other. Over time, MSI hopes to work closely with BCBSF to develop an expanded set of services that will increasingly optimize choice, ensure quality, and manage cost for BCBSF and its members.”
About MSI
MSI offers patients and payers surgical choice and quality with cost containment at carefully selected centers in Kansas, Florida, Mexico, Panama, and Trinidad. MSI cuts overhead, recruits outstanding surgical talent, and identifies host surgical facilities, providing differentiating surgical programs and custom solutions with minimal regard to geography. Whether the patient comes to the surgeon, the surgeon goes to the patient, or patient and surgeon meet at a mutually convenient location, MSI coordinates all arrangements at a cost agreeable to the patient and/or the payer. For more information see www.emeseye.com
About BCBSF
BCBSF is a leader in Florida’s health industry. Since 1944, the company has been dedicated to meeting the diverse needs of all those it serves by offering an array of choices. BCBSF is a not-for-profit, policyholder-owned, tax-paying mutual company. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., BCBSF is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an association of independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies. For more information concerning BCBSF, please see its website at www.bcbsfl.com
