Health Care Quality & Cost

Blue Distinction Centers for Specialty Care

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, together with Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield and other Blue Plans, has identified select high-performance providers nationwide for:

• Bariatric Surgery
• Cardiac Care
• Complex and Rare Cancers
• Transplants

Called Blue Distinction Centers for Specialty Care, these facilities have been chosen based on clinical data, including patient outcomes, from facility registries. Blue Distinction Centers in Iowa and South Dakota are listed below. Facilities outside of Iowa and South Dakota can be found at Blue Distinction Centers on the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association Web site.

Blue Distinction Centers for Bariatric Surgery

Blue Distinction^SM Centers for Bariatric Surgery provide a full range of bariatric surgical care services including inpatient care, post-operative care, follow-up and patient education. These facilities must meet stringent quality criteria, as established by expert physician panels, surgeons, behaviorists and nutritionists. If you're considering bariatric surgery, review these important prerequisites.

Iowa facilities include:

South Dakota facilities include:

Blue Distinction Centers for Cardiac Care

Blue Distinction^SM Centers for Cardiac Care provide a full range of cardiac care services, including inpatient cardiac care, cardiac rehabilitation, cardiac catheterization (including percutaneous coronary interventions) and cardiac surgery (including coronary artery bypass graft surgery)¹. These facilities must meet stringent quality criteria, as established by expert physician panels and national organizations.

Iowa facilities include:

¹Cardiac surgical services (Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery) are not available at this facility.

South Dakota facilities include:

Blue Distinction Centers for Complex and Rare Cancers

Blue Distinction SM Centers for Complex and Rare Cancers focus on facilities that offer comprehensive inpatient cancer care programs for adults that are delivered by multi-disciplinary teams with subspecialty training and distinguished clinical expertise. These types of complex and rate subtypes of cancer are included:

• acute leukemia (inpatient/non-surgical)
• bladder cancer
• bone cancer
• brain cancer – primary
• esophageal cancer
• gastric cancer
• head and neck cancers
• liver cancer
• ocular melanoma
• pancreatic cancer
• rectal cancer
• soft tissue sarcomas
• thyroid cancer – medullary or anaplastic

Iowa facilities include:

Blue Distinction Centers for Transplants

Blue Distinction^SM Centers for Transplants program examines eight transplant types:

• heart
• lung (deceased and living donor)
• combination heart bilateral lung
• liver (deceased and living donor)
• simultaneous pancreas kidney (SPK)
• pancreas (PAK/PTA)
• combination liver kidney
• bone marrow/stem cell (autologous & allogeneic)

There are currently no facilities in Iowa and South Dakota with the Blue Distinction designation.

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Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield is an Independent Licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association doing business in Iowa and South Dakota. Blue Cross®, Blue Shield®, and the Cross® and Shield® symbols are registered marks of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an Association of Independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans.