Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Teams with
Michigan Surgeons’ Society and Mercy Health Partners to
Expand Research Aimed at Improving Heart Surgery Quality

Saving lives, millions in health care costs are goals

Grand Rapids, May 24, 2005— Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has joined with the Michigan Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons in a collaboration to reduce risk of complications and improve treatment methods before and after cardiac surgery for thousands of Michigan patients.

The Michigan Blues and MSTCVS have invited participation from hospitals in Michigan, like Mercy Health Partners in Muskegon, that perform open-heart surgery and have already been contributing data on cardiac surgery outcomes to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons national database. Funding from the Michigan Blues will provide greater in-depth analysis of data, create validation techniques, and facilitate coordination of “best practices” among surgeons and hospitals. The partnership has the potential to improve care for thousands of Michigan cardiac surgery patients and potentially reduce health care costs.

“This partnership between the Michigan Blues and the MSTCVS Quality Improvement Collaborative builds on the work of the thoracic and cardiovascular surgeons and supports expansion of their efforts to date,” said David Share, M.D., M.P.H., clinical director for the Blues’ Center for Health Care Quality and Evaluative Studies, who is leading the Michigan Blues’ participation.

“The project will engage surgeons in an effort to delve more deeply into cardiac surgery outcomes than has been accomplished before. We hope that the study will help determine what

approaches are best for patients with specific conditions and will generate new knowledge to help make care more uniform. The goal is to take what is learned and apply it to better patient care statewide and help ensure positive outcomes,” Share said.

The MSTCVS will manage the project with leadership from Richard L. Prager, M.D., chief of adult cardiac surgery and co-director of the Cardiovascular Center at the University of Michigan Health System.

“This is a truly unique collaboration between an insurer and a cardiac surgical professional society to create the finest measurements of quality and improve the care of the citizens of our state,” said Prager.

“The MSTCVS has been reviewing our own regional data for the last five years, sharing best practices and understanding processes of care throughout our membership,” he added. “This new collaboration enhances our ability to do all these things at the highest level.”

The Michigan Blues hope thatthis collaboration will bring results similar to its award-winning Cardiovascular Consortium, which has enhanced the safety and care of angioplasty patients across Michigan, as well as saving more than $8 million in medical care costs annually. (The new initiative aims at enhanced safety and care of open-heart surgery patients.)

The earlier angioplasty project revealed opportunities to prevent problems and reduce risks to patients who need artery-opening procedures.

“Leaders at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of the angioplasty project and the value of the model it has established,” Share said. “There is great enthusiasm about the potential of this new project to catalyze further improvement in the quality and efficiency of cardiac care throughout Michigan.”

There are about 20,000 adult cardiac operations in Michigan annually, Share noted. For example, the new project will focus on ways to ensure that patients receive essential medications before surgery, after surgery while in the hospital, and when they are discharged, Share said.

Other areas of focus will include ensuring that patients with diabetes control their blood sugar to help decrease the risk of complications following surgery, and that patients with abnormal heart rhythms are monitored closely following surgery to prevent heart attack and sudden death.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, a nonprofit corporation, provides health care benefits to just over 4.7 million members through a variety of plans: Traditional Blue Cross Blue Shield; Blue Preferred , Community Blue and Healthy Blue PPOs ; Blue Choice Point of Service ; Blue Care Network HMO , and Blue HSA SM plans compatible with health savings accounts. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are nonprofit corporations and independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. For more information, visit www.bcbsm.com.