Centrus Health of Kansas City Announces Pediatric-Focused Affiliation with Children's Health Network, Expanding its Value-Based Health Care Offerings in Kansas City
WESTWOOD, Kan. (May 9, 2019) Centrus Health of Kansas City, a physician-led, clinically integrated network (CIN), announces today its pediatric-focused partnership with Children’s Health Network (CHN), creating a more sophisticated and inclusive network to offer employers and payors.
With the new CHN affiliation, Centrus KC expands its network with pediatric providers who are a combination of independent community pediatric practices and those who are employed or contracted with Children’s Mercy Kansas City. CHN is a clinically integrated network that uses a coordinated and integrated care delivery model dedicated to keeping patients healthy.
Centrus KC is currently comprised of more than 1,600 physicians representing three major health systems in the greater Kansas City metro and those who are independent. With CHN, more than 2,700 adult and pediatric physicians across the Kansas City area are available to contract in value-based arrangements.
Centrus KC works collaboratively across the continuum of care to create solutions that improve quality and reduce costs by sharing data, technology and performance benchmarks.
Centrus KC’s partnership with CHN demonstrates a pediatric network and an adult network coming together to offer a full spectrum of services in value-based contracts for adults and children. The affiliation brings together an extensive network of primary care physicians and specialists dedicated to keeping patients healthy, improving coordination of care, and more effectively transitioning patients between pediatric and adult providers as patients age.
“Children’s Health Network is a well-respected, sophisticated network of pediatric providers who share our vision of delivering value-based, community focused, high quality care for patients within the network, and we are pleased to collaborate,” said Jill Watson, Executive Director of Centrus Health of Kansas City. “As we evaluated our existing network and gathered feedback from payors, we recognized a need to further expand our pediatric offerings. CHN is already operating a similar clinically integrated model as ours, so the fit was very natural.”
CHN is a collaborative organization of pediatricians dedicated to improving how care is delivered to give patients the best value and best care experience. Its network brings together the health care excellence of community-based primary care pediatricians and over 750 pediatric specialists at Children’s Mercy, dedicated to keeping children healthy, whether it is for a well check or caring for a child with a medical complexity.
“Collaborating with CentrusKC was a natural extension of our value based strategy to provide payers and employers a comprehensive network of providers focused on keeping patients healthy” said Bob Finuf, Children’s Mercy Senior Vice President and Executive Director of Children’s Health Network.
Centrus KC brings providers together in a partnership designed to improve the quality – and lower the cost – of patient care across the entire continuum. It works collaboratively with participating physician practices, sharing data and holding each other accountable against clinical quality and efficiency standards.
Centrus KC’s network currently includes physicians representing the employed medical groups of North Kansas City Hospital, AdventHealth Shawnee Mission and The University of Kansas Health System, and independent physicians including members of the Kansas City Metropolitan Physician Association. Centrus KC currently operates a contract with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC) and Aetna on a transformative, commercial Accountable Care Organization (ACO). The partners have demonstrated a shared vision around ensuring Kansas City residents have access to high quality care at more affordable prices.
Centrus KC also participates in the Medicare Shared Savings Program – an ACO designed to improve quality and lower the total cost of care for patients insured under the Medicare program.
Centrus KC’s affiliation with CHN is its first collaboration with a network that exclusively offers pediatric care.
About Centrus Health
Centrus Health Kansas City is a clinically integrated, physician-led network, including the employed medical groups of North Kansas City Hospital, AdventHealth Shawnee Mission and The University of Kansas Health System, and independent physicians including members of the Kansas City Metropolitan Physician Association. The network seeks to transform health care by improving outcomes at a lower cost. For more information, visit CentrusHealth.com.
About Children’s Health Network
Children’s Health Network (CHN) was formed in 2015 and is a clinically integrated network of 192 primary care pediatric providers and 795 Children’s Mercy pediatric specialists distributed across 38 practice locations in the Kansas City area. CHN’s objective is to deliver high-value and integrated care that meets the Triple Aim for children by:
• Improving the patient experience of care that includes quality outcomes and patient satisfaction
• Improving the health of the target population
• Reducing the per capita cost of health care
CHN believes valued-based payment models and clinical integration between independent, community-based providers and health system providers are necessary to align incentives and create an integrated and coordinated care delivery model dedicated to keeping children healthy. Learn more about Children’s Health Network at https://www.cmics.org/chn/.