Improved health and more coordinated services for the growing number of Humana Medicare Advantage members in Wichita is the goal behind a new Accountable Care agreement between Via Christi Health and Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM).
Accountable care is a fast-growing model for health care service delivery and health care provider payment. The model focuses on creating health rather than just treating sickness, coordinates a team of specialists working for the patient, offers treatment options based on proof of what works best, and better controls costs through integrated care and reimbursement based on adherence to standards of care.
Humana, one of the country’s leading health and well-being companies, has quickly grown its membership here in recent years to more than 7,000. Humana has become a strong national accountable care player in recent years by working closely with doctors and hospitals through its Accountable Care Continuum. The company’s continuum is a stepped approach to pay-for-value reimbursement that allows Humana to implement different approaches with physicians based on each groups’ practice complexity and infrastructure capabilities.
The new agreement became effective last April and is expected to result in more coordinated care for Wichita patients and an increased emphasis on preventive services.
Via Christi Health, the leading health system in Wichita, provides services in more than 40 areas of expertise with 200 board certified physicians providing care in 15 medical centers and outpatient locations. Via Christi Health, Kansas’ largest health care provider, has five hospitals and more than two dozen primary and specialty clinics in the Wichita area.
“Accountable care relationships are a critical step in creating a system that creates health and works together in a more coordinated way,” said Kathleen Faulk, Humana’s Regional President for Senior Markets in Kansas. “With their tremendous scope of services and highly integrated model, Via Christi is an ideal partner as we continue to create a better health care experience for our members.”
The new Via Christi-Humana accountable care agreement includes pay-for-results incentives based on improved clinical outcomes, a better patient experience and reduced costs. The value-based arrangement emphasizes quality outcomes with a focus on care coordination and leverages measures as defined by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) like diabetes care and treatment, breast cancer screenings, colorectal cancer screenings and high-risk medication.
Humana has a 26-year accountable care relationship history with more than 1.2 million MA members that are cared for by 38,000 primary care physicians, in more than 900 Accountable Care relationships across 43 states and Puerto Rico.
About Humana
Humana Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is a leading health and well-being company focused on making it easy for people to achieve their best health with clinical excellence through coordinated care. The company’s strategy integrates care delivery, the member experience, and clinical and consumer insights to encourage engagement, behavior change, proactive clinical outreach and wellness for the millions of people we serve across the country.
More information regarding Humana is available to investors via the Investor Relations page of the company’s web site at www.humana.com, including copies of:
- Annual reports to stockholders
- Securities and Exchange Commission filings
- Most recent investor conference presentations
- Quarterly earnings news releases
- Replays of most recent earnings release conference calls
- Calendar of events (including upcoming earnings conference call dates and times, as well as planned interaction with research analysts and institutional investors)
- Corporate Governance information
Contacts:
Jeff Blunt, 513-826-7094
jblunt@humana.com
