Independence Blue Cross Launches "New Paradigm" For Health Care
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The region's largest insurer launched a joint venture on Tuesday with a physicians services group that it says will lower costs and improve health.
Leaders of both Independence Blue Cross and Da Vita Health Care Partners call their enterprise "a new paradigm for health care." Hence the name, Tandigm.
"Tandigm Health will provide primary care physicians with the most innovative tools and technology," says Dr. Anthony Coletta, who will be president and CEO, "so they can achieve a new standard of highly coordinated care."
Coletta says he expects to have 300 doctors in the Tandigm fold by next January -- when the venture is up and running at full speed -- and more than 700 in the next few years.
"Our goal is to deliver two things," he says, "a more personalized, satisfying health care experience both for our patients and their doctors, and better health outcomes while bending the cost curve for delivering care."
While the partners say the venture is unique, they also say they expect it to become the model for the future.
