Healthfirst Health Plan Partners with MedAssurant in Commitment to Quality Outcomes

BOWIE, Md., Jan. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- MedAssurant, Inc., a leading provider of data-driven healthcare solutions, today announced that Healthfirst, Inc., will implement Star Advantage™, MedAssurant's quality outcomes improvement solution that enables health plans to both better understand and meaningfully impact their CMS Five-Star Quality Ratings. Star Advantage leverages the nation's most widely used healthcare quality measurement system, large-scale healthcare dataset analytics and a nationwide clinical operations infrastructure to proactively identify and, both efficiently and effectively, resolve gaps in member quality outcomes.

Star Advantage's predictive analytics are informed by MedAssurant's Medical Outcomes for Research on Economics and Effectiveness (MORE2) Registry™ which contains more than 5.2 billion medical events from more than 77 million unique de-identified individuals. Leveraging the unprecedented insight afforded by this comprehensive dataset, Star Advantage gives Healthfirst near-real-time insight needed to identify highly specific opportunities for quality improvement; recommend highly effective intervention based on the individual member's needs, history, and current situation and then deliver targeted interventions using MedAssurant's national and local clinical resources.

Leveraging nationwide quality performance data insight, member behavior, predictive analytics and a deep in-market intervention infrastructure, MedAssurant provides an end-to-end capability to achieve meaningful results. Today, of the insured population within the United States, MedAssurant systems support the calculation of approximately 60% of clinical and quality outcomes measures.

"Healthfirst is committed to the achievement of high-quality and cost-effective care," said Dan McCarthy, Chief Operating Officer of Healthfirst. "Implementing an expansion of our partnership with MedAssurant is part of our strategy to achieve this important goal. Together with our staff and highly valued providers, MedAssurant's Star Advantage solution gives us the necessary insight into where our needs are, as well as expands our toolset to positively impact the health of our members and meet our quality goals."

Keith Dunleavy, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of MedAssurant, added, "More than ever before, health plans are being called on to not only measure quality of care, but to improve it in a meaningful way. Healthfirst is a valuable partner, and we are honored to be working with them in their dedication to delivering high-quality, member-focused care."

The MedAssurant and Healthfirst relationship dates back to early 2009 when MedAssurant began coordinating clinical data accuracy and claims analytics solutions for Healthfirst's Medicare lines of business. Over the ensuing years, MedAssurant and Healthfirst have expanded their relationship to increasingly add prospective analytical processes (known as Prospective Advantage™) and widen their focus to include Healthfirst's Medicaid membership population. With this expansion of the relationship, MedAssurant will now implement its Star Advantage, HEDIS Advantage™ and INDICES™ business intelligence solutions.

About the Solutions

• Star Advantage™ enables health plans to both better understand and meaningfully improve their CMS Five-Star Quality Ratings by leveraging the nation's most widely used healthcare quality measurement system, large-scale healthcare dataset analytics and a nationwide clinical operations infrastructure designed to provide deep, dynamically updated insight into clinical quality outcomes and highly sophisticated gap closure capabilities – end-to-end.
• HEDIS Advantage™ is the nations' most widely used NCQA-certified administrative data analytics and coordinated hybrid medical record abstraction and reporting solution for CMS, NCQA and state-specific quality programs and requirements.
• INDICES™ Reporting and Business Intelligence platform leverages OLAP cube technology and customized pre-calculated analytics to enable healthcare organizations near real-time insight into member, provider and clinical facility care, utilization, quality, disease, demographic, risk score and financial trends and performance.

About Healthfirst

Established in 1993, Healthfirst is a not-for-profit company currently sponsored by 19 of the most prestigious and nationally recognized hospitals and medical centers in New York City and Long Island. Healthfirst has a network of over 20,000 participating physicians and specialists located in the five boroughs of New York City, Long Island and Westchester (Medicare only). Healthfirst service areas include the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, Long Island, Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties. For more information about Healthfirst, please visit the company's website at www.healthfirstny.org.

About MedAssurant, Inc.

MedAssurant, Inc., is a leading technology-enabled healthcare solutions provider focused on the importance of healthcare data and its ability to drive dramatic, objective improvement in clinical and quality outcomes, care management and financial performance throughout the healthcare community. Proprietary healthcare datasets, aggregation and analysis capabilities, combined with a national infrastructure of leading-edge technology, clinical prowess and deep human resources, empower MedAssurant's advanced generation of healthcare assessment and improvement through highly informed solutions. Driven by a mission to improve today's healthcare landscape, the employees of MedAssurant proudly apply care, ingenuity and dedication to delivering a new approach to healthcare touching more than 100 million Americans – one driven by data and insight – one resulting in meaningful action. Please visit www.medassurant.com for more information.

Contacts:

Russo Partners, LLC, on behalf of MedAssurant, Inc.
Tony Russo or Lena Evans
Phone: 212-845-4251
Phone: 212-845-4262
[email protected]
[email protected]  

MedAssurant, Inc.
Jason Rose
4321 Collington Road
Bowie, Maryland 20716
Phone: 301-809-4000
[email protected]

SOURCE MedAssurant, Inc.