The COVID-19 pandemic impacted hospitals throughout the state in 2020 and the MVC Coordinating Center deemed it necessary to evaluate the effect of COVID-19 on the MVC Component of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) Pay-for-Performance (P4P) program. The goal was to determine if adjustments needed to be made to maintain fairness across the collaborative for index admissions in the calendar year of 2020, which will be used to score the 2021 program year.

The MVC Coordinating Center found that 223 of the 25,627 (0.9%) episodes included in the P4P conditions from the first half of 2020 had a code for confirmed COVID-19 infection in the index event or other inpatient settings. Pneumonia and congestive heart failure (CHF) were the most common conditions to have a COVID-19 diagnosis.

The MVC Component of the BCBSM P4P program rewards hospitals for either making improvements over their baseline episode payment or for being less expensive than peer hospitals. The MVC Coordinating Center has also found that episodes of COVID-19 patients are generally more expensive than typical episodes. Additionally, COVID-19 was not present in the baseline year of 2018 that hospitals will be evaluated against and hospitals were impacted differently.

Therefore, with approval from BCBSM, the MVC Coordinating Center will remove any 2020 episode with a COVID-19 diagnosis on an inpatient facility claim during the 30-day episode if the COVID-19 ICD code is one of the first three diagnosis codes on the claim. Please contact the MVC Coordinating Center with any questions at michiganvaluecollaborative@gmail.com.