Geneia and SAS collaborate to improve patient health for accountable care organizations
Geneia and SAS want to change how health care is administered in the US by making better use of patient data. With nearly 750 accountable care organizations (ACOs) operating throughout the country and Medicare moving swiftly to risk-based payments, physicians and hospitals increasingly need sophisticated data and analytics tools.
Geneia is integrating SAS® predictive and episode analytics into its advanced analytics platform, and together, the population health solution delivers a comprehensive view of patient care to ACOs, patient-centered medical homes, and pay-for-performance arrangements. One client recently used this solution to analyze the full spectrum of care provided to patients with back pain and measure effectiveness in terms of cost and quality. This client was able to identify and solve for inappropriate variation in treatment mix (such as unnecessary procedures or tests) by provider, and ultimately was able to improve outcomes while delivering higher-quality and lower-cost care to its back pain patients.
“We know that treatment plans for patients with orthopedic, heart failure, pneumonia and other conditions have high variability in terms of cost, quality and outcomes,” said Mark Caron, CEO of Geneia. “By integrating SAS predictive and episode analytics into our platform, Geneia is bringing a flexible, cost-effective and transparent solution to the increasing number of physicians and hospitals in ACOs and other risk arrangements, and enabling them to identify, analyze and improve the episodes of care provided to these patients.”
With the addition of SAS Episode Analytics, Geneia is augmenting its solution to include episodes of care and bundled payments, which base hospital and physician payments on the expected costs of clinically defined care episodes. Anchored in standard definitions for episodes of care, Geneia is able to assist in:
- Identifying and reducing potentially avoidable medical complications, such as errors and infections.
- Building clinical associations between episodes, drawing a true picture of the patient.
- Comparing expected versus actual costs, and adjusting for risk, to accurately assess the cost of a patient’s episode of care and help avoid unnecessary care.
“We’re excited to collaborate with Geneia on this population health solution for ACOs,” said Dan Cain, Vice President and General Manager, SAS Health and Life Sciences. “Their depth of experience in health care means they are uniquely suited to use SAS Analytics to create data solutions that help ACOs succeed.”
About Geneia
Geneia specializes in the development of advanced clinical, analytical, and technical solutions for health care. Their dedicated team of physicians, nurses, technologists, analytics experts, and business professionals brings significant experience in all aspects of health care to create products and services that improve health care cost, quality, and accessibility. Geneia helps hospitals, physicians, health plans, brokers, employers, and consumers succeed in the post health care reform environment. The company has offices in Harrisburg, PA and Concord, NH. For more information, visit geneia.com or follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.
About SAS® for health analytics
SAS for health analytics encompasses the technologies and skills needed to deliver business and clinical insights into the complex interdependencies that drive medical outcomes, costs and oversight. Through modeling, optimization, predictive analytics and business intelligence, organizations can strengthen financial performance, deepen consumer relationships and improve health care delivery for better outcomes across the entire spectrum of health industries. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Crouse Hospital, Dignity Health, Highmark and Kaiser Permanente are among the leading health care organizations that use SAS. Visit the SAS for health care providers and SAS for health insurance web pages for more information.
Note to editors: Visit SAS at HIMSS15 in Booth 4016, South Hall.
Cary Conway, SAS
972-731-9242
Andrea Durkin, Geneia
Andrea.Durkin@geneia.com
603-828-2263