SSM Well being and well being companies supplier Optum have entered right into a 10-year collaboration to boost inpatient care administration, digital companies and income cycle administration.
The collaboration will embrace the implementation and use of scientific expertise to scale back care variation and co-develop an inpatient care supply mannequin that improves outcomes; RCM expertise to streamline the billing expertise for sufferers and suppliers; and digital expertise to create a seamless affected person journey.
“Via knowledge-sharing, superior analytics and enhanced scientific and operational efficiency, we wish to remodel care each inside our communities and throughout the nation,” mentioned John Nguyen, chief technique officer at St. Louis-based SSM Well being, in an e mail. “Our final objective is to construct a sustainable, accessible and equitable healthcare system that exceeds the expectations of all these we serve.”
About 2,100 SSM Well being workers throughout income cycle and hospital care administration will grow to be workers of Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based Optum. However this doesn’t imply the well being system is outsourcing companies to Optum.
“Whereas a few of our income cycle workforce members will transition to Optum, that is solely a small a part of what we’re doing collectively,” Nguyen mentioned. “It is a new mannequin for collaboration…We’re targeted on altering the trajectory of healthcare on this nation, which requires a bunch effort and companions like Optum.”
The transition may have a number of advantages for the staff.
They “may have entry to a wealth of further instruments, sources, coaching {and professional} growth alternatives that Optum can present as a big nationwide employer,” mentioned Ryan Mckeown, senior vice chairman of Optum Market Efficiency Partnerships, in an e mail.
Along with collaborating on well being companies, UnitedHealth Group, Optum’s guardian, and SSM Well being will collectively make investments hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in group well being packages that serve the well being system’s affected person inhabitants.
The investments will probably be centered on packages that guarantee weak populations have equal entry to high quality care companies inside SSM Well being’s markets.
“An space of early curiosity for us is behavioral well being, which is a rising drawback throughout the nation,” SSM Well being’s Nguyen mentioned. “As a number one behavioral well being supplier, SSM Well being is motivated to seek out extra methods to beat the stigma of those situations and assist folks obtain higher administration and remedy.”
The collaboration is the newest in a string of partnerships Optum has entered into with healthcare suppliers. In Might, it partnered with Cooperstown, New York-based Bassett Healthcare Community, offering the well being system with analytics capabilities, modernized income cycle processes and IT methods.
Optum can also be working with John Muir Well being in Walnut Creek, California, and Boulder Neighborhood Well being in Colorado.
Photograph: metamorworks, Getty Pictures