A total of 18 hospitals, health systems, clinics and physician groups in California will receive grants nearly $20 million from Blue Shield of California to help them participate in accountable care organizations (ACOs).

The ACO grants are being made as part of the San Francisco-based Blue Shield's 2 percent pledge, a commitment made last June to limit annual net income to 2 percent of revenue and to return the difference collected above that amount to customers and the community.

The grants represent an average of $10 million for each of the two fiscal years (2010 and 2011) that the pledge has been applied, Blue Shield added.

The grantees, listed in order of grant amount, are as follows:

• Greater Los Angeles Care Innovation Center - $300,000
• Physicians Medical Group of Santa Cruz - $475,000
• Greater Newport Physicians & Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian - $643,000
• Doctors Medical Center of Modesto - $650,000
• Share Our Selves Comprehensive Care - $750,000
• HealthCare Partners Affiliates Medical Group - $835,000
• Chinese Community Health Care Association - $971,000
• Huntington Memorial Hospital - $980,000
• Adventist Health - $1 million
• AltaMed Health Services - $1 million
• Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula - $1 million
• Children’s Hospital of Orange County - $1.04 million
• Facey Medical Foundation and Medical Group - $1.09 million
• Children’s Hospital Los Angeles - $1.13 million
• Brown & Toland - $1.7 million
• Hill Physicians Medical Group and Catholic Healthcare West - $1.8 million
• St. John’s Health Center - $2 million
• St. Joseph Health System - $2 million