Trinity Health of New England and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Connecticut are accelerating their collaboration on several initiatives, including value-based care (VBC) models and enhanced data connectivity through the Epic Payer Platform.
Trinity Health of New England is an integrated nonprofit healthcare delivery system formed in 2015 and is a member of Trinity Health located in Livonia, Mich., which serves communities in 22 states. Trinity Health of New England is comprised of Saint Francis Hospital and Mount Sinai Rehabilitation Hospital in Hartford, Conn.; Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford Springs, Conn.; Saint Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, Conn.; Mercy Medical Center, Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital, and Brightside for Families and Children in Springfield, Mass.; and Trinity Health of New England Medical Group, a primary and multi-specialty physician group with locations across Connecticut and western Massachusetts.
Trinity Health and Anthem will incorporate Epic Payer Platform into regular operations, a technology that is designed to streamline secure patient data flow between the organizations, bolster operational efficiency, accelerate approval processes, and improve patient outcomes. The platform’s Clinical Data Exchange is designed to simplify processes and reduces the administrative burden for medical teams, allowing doctors to spend less time doing paperwork and more time treating patients.
While Trinity Health and Anthem have long partnered on VBC delivery and quality-based payment models, the new agreement expands that work to include Anthem’s advanced VBC methodology. This represents further progress in moving toward healthcare models that align payment with improved health outcomes and reduced cost trends, the organizations said.
“We have a great opportunity to work more closely with Trinity Health to streamline how our two organizations share clinical information to ensure more efficient, coordinated care,” said Lou Gianquinto, president of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Connecticut, in a statement. “In addition, aligning payments with health outcomes instead of on the volume of care provided is a win-win for employers and consumers in our state. We look forward to continuing to grow this partnership.”
Other payers and providers are using the Epic platform to improve interoperability. For instance, Catholic Health and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New York (formerly Empire Blue Cross) announced last year focused on value-based care.
“Our continued partnership with Catholic Health will keep care affordable for Long Islanders by aligning payments with health outcomes instead of on the volume of care provided—a win-win for employers and consumers,” said Daniel Jorgenson, vice president, healthcare networks at Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, in a statement. “We are focused on our mission to improve the health of all New Yorkers. When we have an innovative partner like Catholic Health, who shares our openness to creative thinking, we are better able to make a real difference in the lives of our members. There is no health system that has made a more meaningful commitment to our value-based relationship, including being the first system in New York to join with us on the Epic Payer Platform to support communications between payers and providers. We look forward to continuing to grow this important partnership.”
