This page may have documents that can’t be read by screen reader software. For help with these documents, please call the number on the back of your member ID card.

Choosing a Specialty Care Doctor

We understand that finding care from carefully screened providers is important. That's why the Blue Distinction® program was created. This program identifies hospitals and medical facilities that have a proven track record for delivering better results, establishing the following criteria:

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

Find a Blue Distinction Center

Bariatric surgery is excluded from some benefit plans, please check your plan document or connect with your Health Assistant via phone at 1-844-287-3859 to verify benefits.

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

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 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 Substance Use Treatment and Recovery
Blue Distinction Centers for Substance Use Treatment and Recovery aims to improve patient outcomes and value by focusing on providers across the full continuum of care who deliver and facilitate treatment for substance use disorder, including opioid use disorder.
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.

Blue Distinction Center (BDC) designation 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 your local Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plan. Call your provider before making an appointment to verify the most current information on its network participation status. Neither Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association nor any of its licensees are responsible for any damages, losses or noncovered charges that may result from receiving care from a provider designated as a Blue Distinction Center.