Excellus BlueCross Blue Shield and the BlueCross BlueShield Association have designated Tully Hill Treatment and Recovery a Blue Distinction® Center for Substance Use Treatment and Recovery (BDC Substance Use Treatment and Recovery), a new designation intended to help patients suffering from a substance use disorder find facilities that deliver quality treatment and care.
Designated as such under 36-member BlueCross BlueShield Association’s Blue Distinction Specialty Care program, Tully Hill now joins the ranks of nationally designated Blue Distinction Centers that demonstrate a commitment to delivering improved patient safety and better health outcomes, based on objective measures that were developed with input from the community and leading accreditation and quality organizations.
Tully Hill is one of the first facilities to earn the Blue Distinction Center designation for substance use treatment and recovery.
The designation recognizes and confirms the superior quality of Tully Hill’s treatment services and programs and its commitment to maintain and enhance that quality, by Excellus and the other 35 independent, community-based and locally operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies that collectively provide health care coverage for one in three Americans. It also signifies to the multiple communities that Tully Hill continues to excel at substance use disorder treatment, care, and recovery.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose, which highlights the seriousness of the opioid epidemic and how critical it is for patients to receive comprehensive, meaningful care. The BDC Substance Use Treatment and Recovery program requires designated facilities to deliver coordinated multidisciplinary care to patients and provide timely access to quality medical and psychosocial care in all phases of treatment. Designated facilities must also offer medication-assisted treatment (MAT) – a way to treat opioid addiction that includes a medication component and behavioral therapy.
Since 2006, the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program has helped patients find quality specialty care in the areas of bariatric surgery, cancer care, cardiac care, cellular immunotherapy, fertility care, gene therapy, knee and hip replacements, maternity care, spine surgery, substance use treatment and recovery, and transplants, while encouraging health care professionals to improve the care they deliver. Research for many programs shows that, compared to other providers, those designated as Blue Distinction Centers demonstrate better quality and improved outcomes for patients.
About Blue Distinction Centers
Blue Distinction Centers (BDC) met overall quality measures, developed with input from the medical community. A Local Blue Plan may require additional criteria for providers located in its own service area; for details, contact your Local Blue Plan. Blue Distinction Centers+ (BDC+) also met cost measures that address consumers’ need for affordable healthcare. Each provider’s cost of care is evaluated using data from its Local Blue Plan. Providers in CA, ID, NY, PA, and WA may lie in two Local Blue Plans’ areas, resulting in two evaluations for cost of care; and their own Local Blue Plans decide whether one or both cost of care evaluation(s) must meet BDC+ national criteria. National criteria for BDC and BDC+ are displayed on www.bcbs.com. Individual outcomes may vary. For details on a provider’s in-network status or your own policy’s coverage, contact your Local Blue Plan and ask your provider before making an appointment. Neither Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association nor any Blue Plans are responsible for non-covered charges or other losses or damages resulting from Blue Distinction or other provider finder information or care received from Blue Distinction or other providers.
