Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp. is entering into a collaboration with Connecticut-based Cedar Gate Technologies to expand the local Brain & Spine Network Center of Excellence program more broadly to employers and patients.
The Brain & Spine Network was established in 2019 by Baptist and Semmes Murphey Clinic, with a goal to provide cost-effective, quality care to those with neck, back, and other issues. Cedar Gate is a value-based care performance management technology company.
The Center of Excellence offers a range of inpatient and outpatient services such as evaluation, physical therapy, pain management, and even surgical options. It is designed as a concierge-style program, where nurse navigators guide the patient through the entire course of their care. They help find the most suitable provider, set up the initial visit, and coordinate aftercare and follow-up appointments.
Since this was Baptist’s “first foray into value-based purchasing and pricing,” said Kim Hallum-Stewart, Baptist's system administrator of neurosciences, they wanted to “make sure that we had it right.”
“Sometimes, experience is the best medicine,” she said.
So, Baptist started a pilot run, offering the program as part of benefits to a pool of 2,800 employees. After a successful run with Baptist and a select few businesses, they found their program managed to reduce out-of-pocket costs significantly, and their treatment plans helped get patients back to work faster.
According to their initial findings, patients returned to work 14% faster than the national average, and 90% of the patients were satisfied with their care.
Baptist broadened the program last fall to add bundled care, providing employers with transparent, predictable pricing. Employers enrolled in the program pay a fixed price for a bundle of services offered.
“Once you contract with the Brain & Spine Network, you know what each bundle is going to cost,” Hallum-Stewart said. “If a patient comes in and has a surgery, you know what that price is, and it stays that price.”
If the patient has to stay more days than average for some reason, “the employer is never at risk. The Brain & Spine Network is at risk for those extra dollars,” she said.
As Baptist now looks to expand its program to more employers, the collaboration with Cedar Gate will help streamline the payment process for such bundled pricing. Its payment technology automatically converts fee-for-service claims into a single, bundled claim, making processing easier.
“Cedar Gate’s platform allows us to bring our vision to self-insured employers by providing value-based payment solutions, streamlined data integration, and operational analytics, which serve as a foundation for us to scale and offer excellence in care to employers across our region,” Hallum-Stewart said.
Baptist has two employers currently on board and is in the process of getting five more.
“We're really excited and see a lot of opportunity in the Mid-South for this program and for patients in our communities,” Hallum-Stewart said. “We feel like our program is robust and flexible, so that we can help meet the needs of any size or any location of employer.”
