Two popular resources for some of the biggest home health and hospice providers in the industry are joining forces to share their respective strengths.
Dallas-based Homecare Homebase (HCHB) and Atlanta-based Excel Health announced Tuesday that they’re teaming up through a new strategic alliance meant to “revolutionize” business development for HCHB’s customers. By working together, the companies hope to combine real-time referral data for HCHB’s system with market data and analytics from Excel Health.
Part of the Hearst Health Network, HCHB provides cloud-based software solutions for the home health and hospice spaces designed to streamline operations, simplify compliance requirements and improve both clinical and financial outcomes. Other Hearst Health companies include First Databank, Zynx Health and MCG.
Care guidance from Hearst Health organizations impacts about 70 million home health visits per year, according to the network.
Excel Health offers complete and current post-acute outcomes data and performance analytics. Its performance analytics, quality metrics and targeting tools are derived from Medicare parts A and B data. Excel Health also releases a quarterly trends report for the home health and hospice industries.
As a result of Excel Health becoming a HCHB preferred vendor, the two companies will be able to collaborate to offer joint customers new services. HCHB Referral Source Link and HCHB Analytics customers will now be able to access timely and accurate facility and physician referral share data from across all care settings from within their existing workflow.
The increased visibility will allow agencies to better target office-based referrals and identify physicians who could influence referral decisions further upstream, according to HCHB and Excel Health.
“By aligning with Excel Health, we are pleased to provide our customers with the most current and precise market data,” HCHB Chief Strategy Officer Scott Pattillo said in a statement. “Now, they can accurately evaluate the potential of referral partner opportunities and gain insight into their own performance metrics to facilitate data-driven, comparative conversations with physicians, healthcare facilities and health plans.”
Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Amedisys (NYSE: AMED) and Birmingham, Alabama-based Encompass Health (Nasdaq: EHC) are among HCHB’s largest home health clients. Perhaps reflective of HCHB’s success, Amedisys CEO and President Paul Kusserow specifically mentioned converting Compassionate Care Hospice to HCHB as one of the first steps Amedisys will take after its recently announced hospice acquisition closes.
Also in line with the newly announced strategic alliance, HCHB and Excel Health plan to team up on several automated products that match real-time referral data from HCHB customers with Excel Health’s solution that analyzes the more than 1.2 billion Medicare claims annually.
Excel Health and HCHB are “redefining” the way agencies develop relationships with referral partners and build high-performing networks, Excel Health CEO Ian Juliano said in a statement.
“By partnering with the industry’s most advanced and successful EMR solutions, we believe we can not only reach more care providers, but also make a positive impact on how hospitals and physicians view and utilize post-acute care services to improve patient care while containing unnecessary care delivery costs,” Juliano said.
Written by Robert Holly
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