A lot changed for Signify Health Inc. (NYSE: SGFY) throughout 2021. One thing that has remained constant, though, is the organization’s push towards a value-based health care system.
For Signify, the recent completion of its Caravan Health acquisition — an accountable care organization (ACO) manager — is a major move toward driving more participation and success in value-based payment arrangements.
“We’re very excited about the opportunity we have with Caravan Health and our ongoing efforts to expand our reach in value-based care,” CEO Kyle Armbrester said on a Q4 earnings call Thursday. “The combination enhances the value proposition to providers, as their services will have a multi-payer applicability to a larger portion of a provider’s panel.”
Dallas-based Signify is a tech-enabled value-based care platform. The company partners with both health plans and health systems to deliver various types of care to patients in their homes.
During the call, Armbrester also called the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) announcement of the ACO REACH Model as “extremely favorable” to a combined Signify and Caravan Health business model. REACH stands for “Realizing Equity, Access and Community Health.”
“ACO REACH is tightly linked to achieving improvements in clinical outcomes by addressing social determinants of health and reducing inequities,” he said. “The REACH approach is consistent with other ACO models and will extend the pathway for providers to assume total accountability for the quality and costs of their patients’ care. Signify’s in-home evaluations are specifically designed to collect social determinants of health data and enable the connection of patients to services.”
Signify’s in-home evaluations have also been a key help in delivering a more integrated care experience.
“The value of our in-home evaluations for both our customers and Medicare Advantage (MA) members remains meaningful,” Armbrester said. “Customers have asked us to do more, and one of several ways we are meeting that demand is through a partnership program we announced in January.”
Armbrester is referring to the launch of the Signify Health Partner Program last month, which is a mechanism to connect value-based care solutions focused on enhancing home-based care.
“We believe in connecting individuals to the right follow-on care, whether that’s a primary care physician or behavioral health provider after the home visit, or activating home care, transportation or food assistance after an acute episode,” he continued.
As for labor pressures, Signify stressed that the company was not experiencing the same clinician staffing issues seen throughout health care.
“Clinicians are turning to us because we’re allowing them to spend an hour of really high-quality time focused on care with individuals,” Armbrester said. “They’re divorced from all of the administrative burdens — dealing with claims, getting bills paid, scheduling, dealing with all the prior authorization workflow — they face if they’re running their own practice, or working within a bigger health system.”
For the full year of 2021, Signify brought in $773.4 million, an increase of 27% from 2020.
“[This was] largely driven by our in-home evaluations and volume growth in our home and community service segment,” Armbrester said.
In Q4, total revenue for the company was $181.4 million, a 6% decrease from the prior-year period.
Signify’s Home & Community Services (HCS) segment totaled $156.2 million in Q4, a 5% increase compared to 2020.
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