Med-Metrix, Hackensack Meridian Health, Jefferson Health announce formation of Medi-Centrix Joint Venture

NEPTUNE, N.J., Oct. 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Med-Metrix, LLC, a full-service billing management and analytics company, Hackensack Meridian Health, a leading comprehensive health network in New Jersey, and Jefferson Health's hospitals in New Jersey announce the formation of Medi-Centrix - a new venture designed to help physicians prepare for value-based care, improve clinical integration and enhance their financial performance.

Medi-Centrix offers a full array of revenue cycle services and the latest analytics to reduce administrative burdens, so physicians can focus on patient care and realize greater financial performance through more efficient practices. This service allows software to connect with any electronic medical record (EMR) and practice management system, improves the exchange of data among health care providers and aids the transition to value-based reimbursement.

Value-based care is a big step away from traditional fee-for-service medicine. The core change is that doctors and hospitals are paid to keep patients healthy, rather than being compensated for each treatment or hospitalization, something that drives up the cost of care, especially for patients with chronic diseases, such as diabetes. 

Dedicated to continuous improvement throughout the health care continuum, leadership from Med-Metrix, Hackensack Meridian Health and Jefferson Health identified a need for a company to help physicians transition to major reimbursement changes and growing industry trends toward consolidation. Medi-Centrix will usher in a new era of support for physician-owned practices to improve their financial performance, transition to value-based care and enhance clinical integration with health system partners.

"Despite the rapid consolidation among health care providers, the vendor marketplace remains highly fragmented,'' said Joseph Davi, CEO and president of Med-Metrix. "Many of the current companies lack the scale, internal controls, and technology platform to adapt to changes in reimbursement and the manner in which the business of health care is conducted,'' he said.
"Medi-Centrix has the requisite infrastructure and technological capabilities to serve the needs of organizations from small physician practices to large health systems."

At the core of Medi-Centrix's philosophy is a physician-centric approach, executives said.

"The business of practicing medicine is evolving rapidly,'' said Carman Ciervo, D.O, Executive Vice President & Chief Physician Executive at Jefferson Health's New Jersey Division. "Physicians need a commercial grade arsenal of business solutions to succeed. Medi-Centrix is establishing an advisory board of practicing physicians to ensure we remain focused on the most pressing issues physicians encounter."

Med-Metrix, Hackensack Meridian Health and Jefferson Health Care are contributing their proven operational expertise in improving the patient and physician experience to the new venture, and each invested capital to form Medi-Centrix.  More than 100 Hackensack Meridian Health team members joined Medi-Centrix upon its formation.  Among several initial customers of Medi-Centrix are Hackensack Meridian Health's employed physician enterprise and Jefferson Health's employed physicians in New Jersey.

"Hackensack Meridian Health has decades of experience successfully growing our employed physician enterprise,'' said Robert C. Garrett, co-CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health.  "Our high-performing team of professionals, combined with the outstanding personnel and technological capabilities of our partners, enables Medi-Centrix to meet the complex needs of both hospital-based and independent community physicians.''

"Medi-Centrix provides relevant solutions that address the increasingly complex business challenges physicians must solve in order to run their practices effectively,'' said Andrew Pecora, M.D. chief innovation officer and president of Physician Services at Hackensack Meridian Health. "This venture provides physicians a path to clinical integration while eliminating administrative burdens so they can focus on delivering the best care at the lowest cost – and share in those savings.''

ABOUT MED-METRIX
Med-Metrix is a leading provider of performance improvement services and software to the healthcare industry. It combines deep subject matter expertise, earned through decades of operational experience, and robust analytics to deliver outstanding results for healthcare providers.

ABOUT HACKENSACK MERIDIAN HEALTH
As New Jersey's most integrated and comprehensive health care network, Hackensack Meridian Health has a strong history of growth and innovation. The network includes 13 hospitals, including two academic medical centers, two children's hospitals and nine community hospitals, 6,000 physicians and more than 140 patient care locations. The network has a proven record of successful expansion and innovation that includes partnerships with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the launch of a medical school with Seton Hall University next year. Hackensack Meridian Health has four hospitals ranked in the top 10 in New Jersey, including the No. 1 ranked Hackensack University Medical Center, more than any other network in New Jersey, according to U.S. News & World Report. Additionally, six network long-term care and rehabilitation centers received the highest rating of five stars in U.S. News & World Report's eight annual Best Nursing Homes, a distinction that only 13 percent of all U.S. facilities have received. The Joseph M. Sanzari Children's Hospital at Hackensack University Medical Center was ranked 45 in pediatric neurology and neurosurgery specialties in U.S. News & World Report 2017-2018 Best Children's Hospitals rankings.

ABOUT JEFFERSON HEALTH
Jefferson Health, home of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, is reimagining health care in the greater Philadelphia region and southern New Jersey. Jefferson's dedicated team of doctors, nurses, health professionals and staff provides a range of primary to highly-specialized care through 13 hospitals (three Magnet®-designated for nursing excellence), more than 50 outpatient and urgent care locations, the NCI-designated Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center and the JeffConnect® telemedicine program. Jefferson's academic health center, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, Inc., is recognized by US News & World Report as #16 on the 2017-18 Best Hospitals Honor Roll.  Jefferson Health's mission is to improve the health of those patients and communities it is privileged to serve through safe, effective, equitable, compassionate care.

SOURCE Med-Metrix, LLC