Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian speaks on the Google Cloud Subsequent occasion in San Francisco, April 9, 2019.
Michael Quick | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
Highmark Well being introduced Monday that it is integrating know-how from Google Cloud and the health-care software program firm Epic Techniques to attempt to enhance knowledge gathering for suppliers and payers.
Client health-care knowledge is saved throughout totally different methods and codecs within the U.S., and the fragmentation could make it tough for payers and suppliers to entry the exact data they want. It is a rising alternative for cloud suppliers like Google, Microsoft and Amazon Internet Companies.
Highmark, headquartered in Pittsburgh, is the mum or dad firm of a well being plan with 7 million members, a supplier community of 14 hospitals and several other different entities.
Combining Epic’s Payer Platform, which sends affected person knowledge between payers and suppliers, with Google’s analytics and synthetic intelligence capabilities will permit faster entry to helpful knowledge a couple of affected person, comparable to their upcoming visits, medical historical past, insurance coverage claims and well being plan advantages, Highmark mentioned.
This sort of data is commonly saved throughout a number of databases and codecs, which implies it may be tough and tedious for docs and insurance coverage staff to trace down, specialists mentioned.
A 2022 report from the American Medical Affiliation mentioned fragmentation is a “perpetual failing of our present well being care system,” and the group referred to as for the creation of recent applied sciences and insurance policies to assist cut back it. The “substantial cognitive load” of organizing giant volumes of information throughout advanced software program is inflicting doctor burnout, in accordance with an April 2023 research printed within the Journal of Major Care & Neighborhood Well being.
Highmark mentioned its new integration will automate administrative processes comparable to prior authorization, an insurance coverage cost-control course of that the AMA says is “handbook and time consuming.”
Dr. Tony Farah, chief medical and scientific transformation officer at Highmark Well being, mentioned the mixing can even assist docs make extra knowledgeable selections about correct subsequent steps, and finally cut back the price of take care of sufferers.
“Docs do not need assistance as soon as they’ve data; the issue is they do not have it,” Farah instructed CNBC in an interview. “The concept is to supply this kind of actionable data properly forward of time, any time of the day.”
Richard Clarke, chief analytics officer at Highmark Well being, instructed CNBC that simpler entry to knowledge a couple of affected person will assist clinicians guarantee sufferers are receiving the care that is finest for them and keep away from pointless steps comparable to further visits or readmissions.
Highmark mentioned its new integration can even assist it combination scientific knowledge from its hospitals that representatives from its well being plan have to entry. The know-how can mechanically notify the well being plan about upcoming affected person visits, as an illustration.
“It actually eliminates the necessity to do this manually, the place the well being plan could have formally despatched some requests to the supplier or referred to as them and created a bunch of handbook steps,” Clarke mentioned. “This may be executed seamlessly now.”
Highmark mentioned its supplier system estimates that the shared claims knowledge from the mixing with Google Cloud will assist it save round $2.7 million every year.
Amy Waldron, international director of healthcare technique and options at Google Cloud, instructed CNBC that with Highmark’s integration “the patron lastly goes to be getting worth from their health-care knowledge.”
It is too early to know whether or not Highmark’s integration will make a fabric distinction for its suppliers, its well being plan or the general high quality of its affected person care.
Highmark mentioned it plans to roll out the know-how to its supplier community by the tip of the second quarter and to not less than two extra Epic-based suppliers inside its insurance coverage community by the tip of 2024.
