Blue Distinction Specialty Care is a national designation program, awarded by local Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) companies, recognizing healthcare providers that demonstrate expertise in delivering quality and affordable healthcare to meet consumers’ specialty care needs—safely, effectively, and cost-efficiently.
The 2025 Blue Distinction Centers for Spine Surgery Program will evaluate acute care hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers that offer elective spine surgery services for adult patients (ages 18 and over) with degenerative disease.
This designation is a mark of quality and can enhance the hospital’s reputation among patients, healthcare professionals, and insurers.
What measures are being reported for participation?
The American Spine Registry (ASR) will provide BCBSA with aggregate, patient deidentified performance metric reporting at the site and surgeon level for participating sites that have executed the consent form, for ASR registry measures identified below:
- 90-day unplanned all cause inpatient readmission (hospitals) / admissions (ASCs)
- 90-day major complication composite
- 90-day postoperative mortality rate
- preoperative and postoperative functional/ health assessment status
- ACSS-4 (Cervical) Pre-operative and Post-operative Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs)
- ACSS-8 (Lumbar) Pre-operative and 3-month Post-operative Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs)
What steps do participating ASR sites need to take to allow performance metrics to be submitted?
We welcome participating sites to reach out to Engagement@AmericanSpineRegistry.org to sign a data-sharing agreement or learn more about getting started with ASR. No data will be shared with BCBSA until a data share consent agreement form is completed and added as an addendum to the respective registry participation contract. In the meantime, participating registry sites can continue data submission for measure data elements. The data will be refreshed each quarter and submitted to BCBSA.
To calculate the required performance measures, participating sites need to submit procedure, post-discharge (90-day unplanned readmissions or return to OR), and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) data elements. The procedures submitted create the measure denominator populations, while the numerators are identified via complications coding submitted in the post-op file and completed functional and global health status assessments submitted via the PROMs file, the ASR PRO Portal, or via a third-party vendor.
For a complete list of inclusion and exclusion coding and data element criteria, please view this document. Reports will be submitted on a quarterly basis.
Do I have to be a participating ASR site to submit data for consideration as a Blue Distinction Specialty Center?
For the 2025 Designation Evaluation, sites can still submit quality measure data via ASR or the BCBSA Provider Survey. For all future Designation Evaluations, participation and measure submission with ASR will be required.
Is there a specific time period that ASR participating sites need to provide consent?
The ASR will send performance measure reports to BCBSA on a quarterly basis. In order to be included in the reports, interested ASR participating sites must provide consent. Click here to view the data share consent agreement form.
When can participating sites begin submitting performance metrics to BCBSA?
Starting in June 2024, consenting ASR sites can submit performance metrics via the BCBS survey tool or the ASR for 2025 Designation Evaluation. ASR participation will be the sole pathway for performance measure submission starting with all future review cycles.
To learn more about how to submit your completed data consent form, email Engagement@AmericanSpineRegistry.org or call 847-292-0530.