Paul Markovich, president and CEO of Blue Shield California, on Friday addressed the California Medical Association’s (CMA) board of trustees, highlighting our company’s initiatives to develop new health care technologies including sharable digital patient records and electronic claims among other initiatives.
Markovich told the CMA’s governing body at the Sacramento meeting that Blue Shield was seeking to reduce administrative costs significantly over the next three years to help support investment in numerous digital efforts.
Blue Shield and CMA announced in June a new, multi-year collaboration to develop and support a new health care model that includes technology support for independent physicians’ practices., Blue Shield and CMA launched pilot projects in Butte and Monterey counties to introduce the technology. Blue Shield is investing $30 million to support the commitment, with goal to scale the projects statewide.
In recent weeks Blue Shield has championed state efforts to fund digital records. It is working in collaboration with Manifest MedEx, a non-profit provider of electronic health records, to develop a statewide electronic health record platform. The state budget signed by Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this month provides for up to $60 million in funding toward that effort. Separately, Blue Shield signed on to a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services calling for safe, privacy-protected digital record keeping at the national level.
Blue Shield is also working with Gemini Health to provide drug-price transparency to prescribers and patients.
