AllWays Health Partners expanding medical, behavioral health provider network

For most Partners HealthCare employees, maintaining an existing relationship with a medical or behavioral health providers is a top priority. Some employees have expressed concern that the upcoming switch to our new health plan administrator, AllWays Health Partners, could affect their ability to continue seeing their providers. However, after months of work, AllWays Health Partners says it is close to having nearly all Partners employees’ providers in its network.

Mark McCormick, AllWays Health Partners Chief Operating Officer, said the health plan has signed nearly 99 percent of medical providers that accept Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Partners’ current health plan administrator.

Success in Adding Behavioral Health Providers

Bringing behavioral health providers on board has taken more time, McCormick says, but AllWays Health Partners has made significant progress over the past two months, increasing the percentage of in-network behavioral health providers from 82 to more than 90 percent. Significant effort continues to be made to add providers to the network.

“Many behavioral health providers are individual practitioners,” says McCormick. “They’re incredibly busy and might not yet be thinking ahead to 2019. With that in mind, AllWays Health Partners teams have reached out through a multi-channel approach ranging from webinars and recruitment dinners to individual contacts and provider blogs.”

The effort is accelerating. In fact, more than 540 behavioral health providers signed up in the first three weeks of October and McCormick said AllWays Health Partners expects a massive influx of provider sign-ups right before the end of the year.

McCormick says AllWays Health Partners is engaging with about 780 behavioral health providers now. Once those providers are signed up, AllWays Health Partners will have 98 to 99 percent of behavioral health providers who accept Blue Cross Blue Shield in their network.

As Partners employees move a day closer to a new health plan, AllWays Health Partners will continue to expand its provider network, McCormick says. Getting as many providers on the network as possible will make for a seamless transition for Partners HealthCare employees on January 1, 2019.

“We’re on this and we’re closing the gap rapidly,” McCormick says.

Is Your Behavioral Health Provider in the Network?

What can you do if you’re one of the few whose behavioral health provider isn’t part of the AllWays Health Partners’ network? You can recommend your provider. AllWays Health Partners will take it from there.

An online dashboard allows Partners employees to recommend providers and see where their providers are in the recruitment process. Employees can also sign up for updates via email, text or phone. This lets them know as soon as their provider has signed up to the AllWays Health Partners network.