New model suggests agencies should be able to materially reduce visits per episode while ensuring high risk patients get more care than before.
NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nashville-based healthcare data science company, Medalogix, announced today its newest product, Medalogix Care. This home health utilization management solution leverages predictive analytics and optimization technology to provide guidance on patient care plans to healthcare providers, based on the historical analysis of millions of patient records, care plans and outcomes.
The announcement comes after Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Health Economists peer-reviewed Medalogix’s models and found them to be more accurate than the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) publicly available risk adjustment models.
“Healthcare is behind the curve as it relates to data science, even as the biggest tech companies are investing billions of dollars in machine learning. Google, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM are leading the charge while the worldwide spend for Artificial Intelligence is projected to grow to nearly $20 billion in 2018 alone, which represents a 54% increase over the previous year,” said Elliott Wood, president and CEO of Medalogix. “Machine learning technology allows us to do more for patients that need additional clinical attention. That’s what drives our company - we strive to help others do more with less. Great technology alone won’t get us there, but great technology in the hands of great clinicians will be a giant step forward.”
Medalogix Care analyzes each patient’s clinical and functional assessment and provides an objective determination of how many home health visits a patient may need to achieve the desired outcome.
Medalogix’s data scientists identified several trends that were surprising. For example, based on analysis of multiple patient populations, Medalogix found a clear trend of diminishing returns and reduced visit effectiveness for some patients earlier in the home health episode of care than what was expected. With the industry average number of visits provided per episode ranging between 15 and 19 visits per episode, this will create resource capacity for an agency’s higher risk patient population. Early simulations of the data suggest that a home health agency should be able to reduce visits by a significant amount while achieving the same or better outcomes. With the ability to optimize episodes and resources, patients with high-risk needs are likely to get more care than what they’ve experienced historically.
The pilot program of Medalogix Care began in October 2017 with long-time customer Encompass Health. “We spend a lot of time and resources ensuring the data we collect is accurate. Our nursing and rehabilitation professionals are excellent at caring for patients in the home setting, but building a ‘just right’ care plan is very difficult because there are literally hundreds of factors to consider for each patient,” said Bud Langham, chief clinical officer at Encompass Health-Home Health and Hospice. “Having evidence-based recommendations and statistical support to augment our clinical decision-making is critical as we continue to move toward a value-based system. As an industry, we have to get there to ensure our patients receive the right care, by the right disciplines, at the right time.”
Early feedback from the clinical users piloting the technology have said the evidence-based recommendations provide an objective resource for evaluating patient-specific visit needs, augmenting the field staff recommendations and experience.
Furthermore, customers can leverage this technology to approach commercial plans and enter into value-based arrangements. “Having these kinds of capabilities has the potential to change the conversation with our strategic partners,” said Luke James, chief strategy officer at Encompass Health-Home Health and Hospice. “We’ve been able to partner with Medalogix in the past to identify risks within our patient populations, and this allows us to take risk in a measured fashion and have confidence in our approach.”
The need for technologies like this is growing, especially in light of the recently initiated CMS Home Health Groupings Model, which will fundamentally change how agencies are reimbursed. The Medalogix platform is currently integrated with several home health and hospice electronic medical records (EMRs) and is the only portfolio of predictive analytics products focused on improving patient outcomes in the home health space.
About Encompass Health
As a national leader in post-acute care, Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) offers both facility-based and home-based patient care through its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, home health agencies and hospice agencies. With a national footprint that spans 127 hospitals and 268 home health & hospice locations in 36 states and Puerto Rico, the Company is committed to delivering high-quality, cost-effective care across the post-acute continuum. Driven by a set of shared values, Encompass Health is the result of the union between HealthSouth Corporation and Encompass Home Health & Hospice, and is ranked as one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, as well as Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work. For more information, visit encompasshealth.com, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
About Medalogix:
Medalogix was founded in 2012 with the desire to help home health agencies identify patients on census at-risk for unplanned rehospitalization. Since that time, Medalogix has developed products and services that help home health providers create clinical programs, manage large populations more efficiently, and drive value to strategic partnerships.
Medalogix products have been recognized by Harvard Business Review, HIMSS, Fierce Healthcare, and Becker’s Hospital Review as innovative solutions for improving America’s healthcare system.
For more information, please visit Medalogix at medalogix.com or follow on Twitter at: @Medalogix.
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SOURCE Medalogix
