- The best vendors in population health management are those that go beyond good technology with partnering and guidance, a new KLAS Research report finds.
- Leading the pack is HealthEC, which offers customers an interactive relationship and deep knowledge of the market along with strategic guidance, according to the report.
- KLAS Population Health Management 2018, Part 1 looks at which vendors are rising to the challenge and helping customers meet value-based payment goals and which are falling behind. A second report will focus on what providers are achieving through their PHM initiatives and vendor roles in that effort.
This report looks at 21 technology-focused vendors. HealthEC beat out all the competition in both partnering and guidance with an overall score of 93.0. Rounding out the top six were Health Catalyst, Arcadia, Enli, Epic and Lightbeam.
Other vendors have seen customer satisfaction fall in the past year, KLAS notes. Philips Wellcentive has faced acquisition and scaling issues, while NextGen Healthcare’s customers long for the attention they got from EagleDream Health, which NextGen acquired. Meanwhile, Allscripts and athenahealth have faltered in delivering the functionality customers want.
Good partners tend to be highly responsive, proactive in preventing problems and quick to resolve issues by clearing hurdles that get in the way of effective customer-vendor interaction, according to the report. They also provide high-quality products that integrate with users other IT tools and those used by their care partners.
HealthEC’s customers are mostly ACOs and located in the northeastern U.S., though the company is beginning to establish a national footprint. One of HealthEC’s attributes is effective claims integration, KLAS notes. “HealthEC’s ACO customers need to be able to aggregate many types of EMR and claims data, and they often note how the close working relationship they have with HealthEC enables them to quickly resolve problems as they work through errors and inaccuracies in claims data,” the report says.
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Health Catalyst vets who they contract with to ensure its capabilities align with the customer’s goals. Arcadia offers strong dashboards that help users navigate its PHM systems. Customers can use the tools alone or in conjunction with Arcadia’s managed services, KLAS said.
Though small, Lightbeam gets kudos for relaying its commitment to releasing technology that benefits the customer, according to the report. “We have a full partnership with Lightbeam thanks to their hands-on approach,” an IT director told KLAS. “The quality measures and the types of reporting that we have to do change every year, and Lightbeam is on top of that.”
When it comes to guidance, HealthEC customers tout the availability of ad hoc training and tailored, people-driven programs. Other vendors like Optum, SPH Analytics and IBM Watson Health get points for training, but lag on optimization.
HealthEC, IBM Watson Health, Arcadia, Enli and SPH Analytics rank high on benchmarking and performance tracking. Arcadia offers internal metrics that let customers track the progress they’re making.
Customers are also looking for vendors with expertise in negotiating value-based reimbursement contracts. HealthEC offers guidance on which reporting metrics to use and how that will affect return on investment of different value-based arrangements. Lightbeam includes contract guidance in ongoing collaboration talks.
Date: January 11, 2019
Source: HealthcareDive
