Big Data Leveraged To Provide Big Savings

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Covenant saved a projected $1.8 million in savings using a population health solution.

Covenant Health, a non-for-profit healthcare system, is leveraging big data insights using a MedeAnalytics’ population health solution and projects it will save $1.8 million in savings in employee healthcare costs. Covenant has already used analytics to identify high risk employee patient groups in order to redesign their health plan in order to focus on the ailments that employees suffered most frequently.

“MedeAnalytics Population Health solution allowed us to do two things: design a plan that met our employee’s needs by aggregating and analyzing past trends, and create healthcare plans that catered to the entire network’s needs,” Richard Boehler, MD and CEO of St. Joseph Hospital, part of Covenant Health, said in a release. “We see this as an important stepping stone towards our goal of having at least 50 percent of our payments – including those with commercial health plans and third party administrators – be tied to value-based by 2018.”

The program uses big data analytics to aggregate and normalize disparate claims, digital records, cost, patient satisfaction, and other clinical and financial data. This provides insight into clinical quality, utilization, and costs associated with patient populations and integration with a broad array of health information exchange (HIE) and provider-facing clinical workflow partners to provide a comprehensive population health management platform.

“Improving the quality of care and reducing expenses will continue to be a top priority for the entire healthcare industry, but providers have a unique opportunity to drive change, especially within their own organization,” said Andrew Hurd, MedeAnalytics Chairman and CEO. “Covenant has seen a powerful transformation in their data-driven approach towards employee population health. Self-insured organizations can look to Covenant’s success as a model for a scalable plan towards broader population health initiatives.”

Healthcare providers and payers are increasingly discovering the inherent possibilities of big data as Health It Outcomes previously noted. In 2014, Great River Medical Center and St. Vincent’s Health Partners (SVHP) both found that effectively leveraging big data can impact the bottom line and the quality of care for an institution, helping to operate more efficiently, drive costs down, and improve patient care and outcomes.