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Blue Distinction^®

Blue Distinction recognizes facilities that meet objective, evidence-based thresholds for clinical quality, developed in collaboration with physicians and medical organizations. At the core of Blue Distinction are the Blue Distinction Centers for Specialty Care^®, providing you with a credible, easily identifiable means of selecting facilities that meet your individual health care needs.

Each Blue Distinction Center has demonstrated their commitment to quality care, resulting in better overall outcomes for patients. In determining the selection criteria, we collaborated with physician experts and medical organizations. Potential Blue Distinction Centers^® submit clinical data to establish that they meet the selection criteria, which include:

An established program, performing required annual volumes for certain procedures
Appropriate experience of its medical specialty team
An acute care inpatient facility, including intensive care, emergency and specialty services
Full facility accreditation by a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)-deemed national accreditation organization
A comprehensive quality management program

Focus on High-Volume, High-Risk and High-Cost Areas of Specialty

Blue Distinction Centers for Bariatric Surgery
Provide a full range of bariatric surgical care services, including inpatient care, post-operative care, follow-up and patient education
Blue Distinction Centers for Cardiac Care
Provide a full range of cardiac care services, including inpatient cardiac care, cardiac rehabilitation, cardiac catheterization and cardiac surgery
Blue Distinction Centers for Cellular Immunotherapy
Focus on treatments used to help the immune system fight diseases, such as cancer
Blue Distinction Centers for Fertility Care
Focus on in vitro fertilization which is the most common assisted reproductive technology treatment and is widely becoming the preferred option for fertility treatment
Blue Distinction Centers for Gene Therapy
Focus on gene therapies for inherited disorders. The initial launch of this program for ocular disorders includes newly FDA-approved gene therapy used to treat patient with a specific type of inherited blindness. The treatment introduces a genetically modified healthy version of the gene and offers a new treatment option where non has existed before.
Blue Distinction Centers for Knee and Hip Replacement
Provide inpatient knee and hip replacement services, including total knee and total hip replacement surgeries
Blue Distinction Centers for Maternity Care
Demonstrate expertise and a commitment to quality care for vaginal and cesarean section deliveries. These centers demonstrate better overall patient satisfaction and a lower percentage of early elective deliveries
Blue Distinction Centers for Spine Surgery
Provide inpatient spine surgery services, including discectomy, fusion and decompression procedures
Blue Distinction Centers for Transplants
Represent more than 330 transplant programs, which provide services, such as global pricing, financial savings analysis and global claims administration and support services

You can find more information about Blue Distinction under the Doctors and Hospitals section of your Blue Access for Members^SM account or use our Provider Finder^® to search for a Blue Distinction Center near you.

Note: Designation as Blue Distinction Centers means these facilities' overall experience and aggregate data met objective criteria established in collaboration with expert clinicians' and leading professional organizations' recommendations. Individual outcomes may vary. To find out which services are covered under your policy at any facilities, please call the customer service phone number on the back of your Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois member ID card.

Blue Distinction®

Focus on High-Volume, High-Risk and High-Cost Areas of Specialty

Blue Distinction^®