iVantage Health Analytics Names America's Best Healthcare Cities: Narrow Networks In These Markets Benefit from Overall Strong Performance

iVantage identifies 4 million years of potential lives lost; and potential to add $513 billion dollars to the U.S. GDP

547 HEALTHSTRONG Hospitals Named

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Mar 10, 2014, 11:45 ET

PORTLAND, Maine, March 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- iVantage Health Analytics, Inc. today released the first-ever ranking of the best healthcare cities in the U.S., as determined by the Hospital Strength INDEX™. Washington, DC; Boston; Minneapolis; Portland, OR; Chicago; Charlotte; Philadelphia; Atlanta; New York; and St. Louis (CBSAs) rose to the top, based upon hospital and market performance for populations. These top performing healthcare markets serve approximately 19% of the U.S. population, or 60 million people.

These hospitals set a new benchmark, and the lower-performing markets present the opportunity to change and save 3,962,850 years of potential lives lost (YPLL). This potential is the equivalent of adding one year of life to either half of the population of New York City or to all the residents of Los Angeles. ACO developers and narrow network managers will benefit from these comprehensive insights about provider performance and their relationship with the psychographics of the health and wellness of the local population.

Hospitals' ability to manage value, risk and performance in these top markets quantify the potential for improvement nationally in the form of $513 billion dollars to the expansion of the gross domestic product (GDP), through the extension of life. This potential is the equivalent of the GDP of the state of Ohio or of the city of Chicago.

"This year's findings confirm the premise of the new healthcare," commented John Morrow, executive vice president of iVantage Health Analytics. "It sheds new light on hospital and population performance and the effect both have on the health of local communities and the economy. Potential life equates to: productivity, wages, taxes, consumption of goods and services, housing, manufacturing… all good purpose given the current state of our economy...just in case anyone is looking for a return on investment thesis."

The Hospital Strength INDEX is the industry's most comprehensive ratings system, leveraging publically available data to measure more than 4,299 acute care hospital markets, including 1,300 Critical Access Hospitals. Hospitals are measured across 10 equally weighted pillars of performance, encompassing 66 different metrics: Competitive Strength, Competitive Intensity, Market Size and Growth, Population Risk, Cost, Charge, Quality, Outcomes, Patient Perspectives, and Financial Stability. The combined scores across each pillar determine a hospital's overall INDEX.

iVantage identified and profiled all U.S. hospitals with consideration for the wellness, cost and population management effects in their markets. Using statistical clustering techniques to stratify the large aggregate of INDEX measures, the research revealed that, among the 4,299 hospitals studied, the benchmarks centered around five tiers of statistically significant performance. The top tier is comprised of 547 hospitals, hereby named HEALTHSTRONG hospitals; these hospitals are present in 283 markets around the country, yet are concentrated around America's best healthcare cities.

"Five hundred and forty-seven HEALTHSTRONG hospitals is evidence that hospital performance is improving nationally and more benchmarks are being achieved by this important industry sector, Morrow added. "The broad geographic distribution of these hospitals also indicates that more Americans have access to top performing institutions. While not all markets are identical, there are common population psychographics; a key insight for population managers trying to effectively coordinate care with beneficiaries. This study reveals the direct relationship between education, income, ethnicity, and consumption trends in top performing markets."

The Hospital Strength INDEX methodology, study abstract and list of 2014 HEALTHSTRONG hospitals can be found online at www.iVantageHealth.com.

About iVantage Health Analytics®

iVantage is a leading advisory and business analytic services company applying Accelerated Healthcare Transformation™ and the VantagePoints™ platform to drive sustained, evidence-based results. The company's unique combination of technology, content, and expert advisory services accelerates decision making for the new healthcare.