Queen's Health Systems and HMSA agree to rate plan

Hawaii’s largest health insurer, HMSA, and the operator of Hawaii’s largest acute-care hospital, Queen’s Health Systems, announced on June 8 they have entered into a payment agreement that attempts to restructure how hospitals have historically been paid for the health-care services they provide.

Executives at Hawaii Medical Service Association, a Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliate, and the nonprofit Queen’s Health Systems, which operates, among others, Honolulu’s Queen’s Medical Center, say the new payment system reimburses hospitals based on the quality and safety level of the care they provide rather than the traditional model based on the amount of services they perform.

HMSA executives described it as a “paradigm shift,” and say mainland facilities have demonstrated that improving quality of care has ultimately resulted in reducing overall health-care costs. The system is billed as collaboration between health plans, health-care providers, employers and patients to create a sustainable health-care system.

“Health-care costs have been increasing at unsustainable levels,” Queen’s President and CEO Art Ushijima said in the statement. “Queen’s and HMSA have come together to find concrete ways to address this urgent situation. The new agreement focuses on quality and efficiency, and will help us bend the cost curve over time with the goal of keeping health care manageable and accessible for the people of Hawaii.”