Hue Health and Banner Health Launch "39North," a Direct Primary Care Plan in Northern Colorado, Powered by Flume Health

●     Northern Colorado employer and employee members receive in-network care at all Banner Health locations

●     Hue Health's value-based care plan incentivizes care providers and offers zero-copay primary care services to members; requires vendor cost transparency to ensure pricing consistency across procedures

●     Primary care physicians serve as "healthcare quarterbacks" to ensure proper and efficient patient care

GREELY, Colo. and NEW YORK, June 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hue Health, a leader in direct primary care, today announced that it has launched a new performance-based primary care health plan with one of the largest, secular nonprofit health care systems in the country, Banner Health. The plan, called 39North – named after the latitude of the community it serves in northern Colorado – is powered by Flume Health, a health-plan-as-a-service platform that aims to remove the complexity of designing and managing healthcare plans.

39North is a self-funded, advanced primary care plan created and run by Hue Health in conjunction with Banner. The plan covers all services and is available to northern Colorado employers/employees who are eligible to receive in-network healthcare at Banner's local area facilities.

The goal is to improve the coordination of a patient's care to ensure that all care is necessary, efficient for the patient and provider, and will move the patient toward the best health outcome possible. The program also works to provide the best price transparency possible for patients.

Banner serves as the anchor providing all medical services including specialty care, while Hue Health ensures cost savings as well as price transparency and consistency by developing direct contracts with hospitals and healthcare providers for medical care. Banner's primary care physicians serve the unique needs of patients by focusing on providing coordinated and accessible care within the healthcare system.

Their services range from treating acute care needs, with a focus on preventive health screenings, annual wellness visits, and immunizations.  Patients with chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension, are managed with the involvement of clinical pharmacists and diabetic educators to provide ongoing monitoring of their condition.

"Primary care impacts around 90% of downstream healthcare costs, so effective coordination and incentives can impact both cost and quality at all levels of care," said Jake Kerr, CEO, Hue Health. "Hue Health offers 'Performance-Based Primary Care' – a concierge level of patient care that also includes performance incentives to providers. The concept of value-based care, based on quality rather than quantity, is improving outcomes across the board and drives the strategy at Hue. Working with a healthcare leader like Banner and a visionary like Flume to meet the specific needs of the people of northern Colorado is key to our success."  

"We are pleased to serve northern Colorado by partnering with a health plan that addresses their healthcare needs and budgets," said Jim Branom, Payor and Provider Relations Director, Banner. "By joining forces with Hue, we will be able to further extend our medical care services, anchored in primary care, quickly and affordably, to reach as many members in the area as possible."

Additionally, amidst labor shortages, companies are seeking creative ways to improve benefits and salaries to attract workers. By helping companies save significantly on their health benefits, a plan like 39North enables them to put more money toward increased employee salaries to attract and retain talent.

"This initiative illustrates why we got into this business to begin with," said Cedric Kovacs-Johnson, CEO and founder, Flume Health. "By helping our clients to foundationally facilitate speed to market without having to hire an internal health plan team - or single employee for that matter - we ensure their members get insurance cards in hand in record time, so that they can start using curated health services immediately. By focusing on building plans for individual communities, we help improve members' health outcomes at a lower cost."

A leader in direct primary care, Hue Health builds networks that connect providers who are looking for patients with health plans that have patients who need direct primary care providers.

Banner Health is one of the largest, secular nonprofit health care systems in the country. In addition to 30 acute-care hospitals, Banner also has an academic division, Banner – University Medicine, and a partnership with one of the world's leading cancer programs, Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center. Banner's array of services includes a health-insurance division, employed physician groups, outpatient surgery centers, urgent care locations, home care and hospice services, retail pharmacies, stand-alone imaging centers, physical therapy and rehabilitation, behavioral health services, a research division and a nursing registry. To make health care easier, 100% of Banner-employed doctors are available for virtual visits, and Banner operates a free 24/7 nurse line for health questions or concerns. Patients may also reserve spots at Banner Urgent Care locations and can book appointments online with many Banner-employed doctors. Headquartered in Arizona, Banner Health also has locations in California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming. For more information, visit bannerhealth.com.

Flume Health is the first digital platform for health plan administration, replacing traditional TPAs and empowering challenger and incumbent healthcare companies to design and launch powerful next generation, personalized health plans. A Health-Plan-as-a-Service, Flume eliminates the complexity of designing, managing, and launching personalized healthcare plans. Companies can leverage Flume's Health-Plan-as-a-Service operating system to overcome the administrative burden of running a plan, allowing plan providers to focus on member experience. For more information, visit www.flumehealth.com.

SOURCE Flume Health