Beacon Health System ACO Expands Relationship with Koan Health for Value-Based Analytics

The federally recognized accountable care organization (ACO) owned by Beacon Health System in South Bend, Ind. — has expanded its relationship with Dallas-based Koan Health. Koan will now give comprehensive healthcare analytics, risk management and performance improvement services for several CHA ACO and Beacon initiatives.

"CHA ACO and Beacon are innovators in the region of Indiana," pointed out Jeff Hayes, Koan Health executive vice president. "We are excited to assist them strengthen results in all of their value-based attempts."

Through the contract, CHA ACO and Beacon will have approach to proprietary analytic tools and consulting services of Koan Health that observe and target areas for improvement in population health and particular episodes of care.

“Analytics of Koan Health are much more flexible, transparent and detailed in contrast to any of the competition's," stated Diane Maas, Beacon Health vice president. "And their responsiveness and service make them true partners."

Koan will support the Beacon team in setting, monitoring and achieving performance improvement aims in 2 strategic areas:

• Accountable care relationships (Employee ACO and Medicare Shared Savings Program) with almost 30,000 covered lives and over $300 million in yearly expenditures.


• Episode-of-care relationships (Medicare Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative and Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model) with nearly 700 episodes and $15 million in yearly expenditures.

"Our analytics develop a deep link between clinical and financial performance," claimed DT Nguyen, Koan Health chief executive officer. "Our experience with accountable care and bundled payments enables us to assist organizations to coordinate improvement across all of their public, private and employee programs."

Value-based arrangements are part of a continual revolution in health care delivery and financing. Government and private payers seek to control charges by reimbursing providers deployed on clinical and financial results—rather than on the number of services they deliver.

Precise predictive analytics, like those given by Koan Health, are a critical tool in comprehending current performance, setting improvement goals, designing interventions and measuring outcomes.