Integrated Delivery System of Spokane, LLC Joins Forces with xG Health Solutions™ to Support Its Provider-Led Care Strategy

xG Health brings proven care management, multi-payer data analytics services to Washington state market

SPOKANE, Wash. and COLUMBIA, Md., Jan. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Patients cared for by providers who are part of Integrated Delivery System of Spokane, LLC (IDSS) will soon benefit from an innovative collaboration between the Spokane provider organization and xG Health Solutions™.  The IDSS is a joint venture formed in August 2012 between Group Health Cooperative (GHC) and Providence Health Care that brings together more than 550 providers throughout the Spokane region who have committed to manage care for patients across the region with a more coordinated, seamless and affordable approach to care.

The Spokane provider organization has engaged xG Health Solutions™, a company born from nationally recognized Geisinger Health System, to provide population health data analytics and care management services for its providers. The goal of this collaboration is two-fold: give the Spokane providers the information they need to enhance the quality of patient care they deliver, thereby reducing costs and help them succeed in shifting from a fee-for-service to a value-based payment system. IDSS plans to utilize xG Health's services to better manage care for all patients, regardless of insurer.

"Today, providers are getting various kinds of data from multiple payers, which is intended to be used to inform providers' care plans for patients. However, it's unsustainable for our providers to effectively analyze and use this data since each payer has its own set of rules, reports and varying degrees of complexity. As a result, we see a clear need for a neutral and objective intermediary, like xG Health Solutions, to help aggregate and analyze the data in order to effectively act on it for better patient care," said Kelly Stanford, president of IDSS.

xG Health is a provider-centric organization with deep experience in population health data analytics and delivery of high quality coordinated care by independent or employed physicians. With roots in the Geisinger Health System, a national leader in care delivery redesign and innovation, xG Health focuses on supporting providers with actionable analytics and provider-led care management solutions.

A key element of this partnership will be xG Health's multi-payer analytics services provided by xG Health's Integrator Services Organization (ISO). Providers have long been inundated with patient information and performance metrics from many payers in incompatible formats. xG Health's approach collects and analyzes data from different payers, Electronic Medical Records and other sources, and creates one unified view for all patients, regardless of their insurer. This unified view will provide insights into how the delivery system is performing for patients and opportunities to improve quality and affordability. 

"We are impressed by Integrated Delivery System of Spokane's progressive approach in supporting its providers," said Dr. Earl Steinberg, CEO of xG Health. "Provider-driven population health is what the health care delivery system needs to improve quality and reduce costs. We hope other insurers in Washington state will join in this collaboration."

Benefits of proven care management, multi-payer data analytics services

Dr. Kirk Rowbotham, chief medical officer for Providence Medical Group, a provider group in IDSS, stressed the importance of consistent data that will result from the partnership with xG Health.

"It is challenging for doctors and other providers to work with data that comes from different insurance payers," he said. "Being able to have one view into the whole population we're caring for will make it easier for us to focus on delivering high quality care to our patients. Additionally, we will be leveraging xG Health's clinically trained analysts to interpret the data and identify trends that will assist us in making more informed clinical decisions."

Marking an important milestone for this relationship, Group Health is the first payer to sign on with xG Health to support the work of the IDSS. As both a health insurance carrier and the largest medical group in Washington state, Group Health has repeatedly proven the power of combining its claims data and care delivery system for identifying and initiating outreach that leads to better quality care and healthier members.

For payers and providers who wish to be a part of IDSS, xG will provide an independent view of the data - aggregating thousands of data points on where patients are getting care, how much that care costs, where gaps exist, and translating this data into actionable insights for providers to proactively reach out to the patient to facilitate and coordinate the best care.   

"We envision that as more payers join us in the Integrated Delivery System of Spokane and other collaborative efforts, we'll see an important and dramatic shift in paying providers for outcomes and value, rather than the amount of care provided," said Bob O'Brien, executive vice president of Group Health's Health Plan Division. "For truly meaningful health reform to occur, this shift must be embraced and applied to the way we pay for care."

About Integrated Delivery System of Spokane, LLC

Integrated Delivery System of Spokane, LLC is an integrated physician organization that includes health care providers from Group Health Physicians, Providence Medical Group (PMG) and Columbia Medical Associates (CMA). At the center of the physician group are 132 primary care physicians who serve as the medical home for patients throughout the region. These primary care physicians coordinate patient care among specialists, urgent care centers and hospitals, including Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center & Children's Hospital and Providence Holy Family Hospital. Altogether, the organization is the largest coordinated delivery system in the Spokane region, with access to more than 550 physicians and advanced practitioners caring for nearly 200,000 patients throughout the Spokane region. The organization works with other health insurance companies and health care purchasers to manage care for patients across the region with more coordinated, seamless and affordable care.

About xG Health Solutions

xG Health Solutions' mission is to help health systems and others committed to high quality, value-based care succeed under risk-based payment arrangements. Our volume-to-value roadmap, care design and delivery, population health analytics, and financial optimization services are powered by Geisinger Health System's methods that have been proven to achieve best-in-class outcomes. xG Health is the primary provider of Geisinger's Health care Performance Improvement Intellectual Property. xG Health also provides experienced professionals to partner in developing and implementing strategies focused on improving quality and reducing cost of care over the long haul. For more information, visit www.xghealth.com, or follow the latest xG Health news and more on LinkedIn or Twitter.

About Group Health

Group Health is one of the nation's leading nonprofit health systems, recognized for its consumer-governed cooperative origins and innovative solutions for improving care. Established in 1947, Group Health Cooperative, together with its subsidiaries Group Health Options, Inc. and KPS Health Plans, provides health coverage to more than 617,000 residents of Washington state and North Idaho. More than 394,000 members receive care from Group Health Physicians medical group at Group Health Medical Center locations across the Puget Sound region and Spokane. Group Health advances health in the community through its medical education, charitable foundation, and nationally recognized research institute. For more information about Group Health, visit www.ghc.org.

CONTACTS:  
Angela Matson, Integrated Delivery System of Spokane, LLC: 509-241-7146, [email protected]
Tatiana Nikitina, xG Health Solutions™: 443-203-1079, [email protected]
Ed Boyle, Group Health:  206-448-4148, [email protected]

SOURCE Geisinger Health System