Independence Blue Cross (IBX) has officially announced a decision to implement Epic Payer Platform for health systems and providers in its network, all for the purpose of streamlining data exchange, closing gaps in care, and improving health outcomes for members.
In case you weren’t aware, Epic Payer Platform happens to be a part of Epic, a global healthcare technology company. The stated platform has been designed to facilitate data exchange and workflow processes for providers and health plans, something it does to giving them the insights they need to make well-informed care decisions, and at the same time, save them a good chunk of time.
Talk about what improvements IBX will likely achieve on the back of this implementation, we begin from the prospect of fewer care gaps. Here, real-time exchange of clinical data will make it possible for IBX and its network close to close care gaps, and therefore, scale up member health understanding and improve care quality. More on the same would reveal how the implementation will allow IBX to access synchronized clinical information in real-time. Such an access, on its part, will improve rather significantly upon healthcare team collaboration, along with patient care strategies and outcomes.
“The integration of the Epic Payer Platform with Independence Blue Cross will significantly enhance our ability to provide comprehensive and efficient care to our patients, ensuring better health outcomes and streamlined operations,” said John S. Potts, DO, FAAFP, assistant chief medical information officer at Main Line Health.
Moving on, the implementation will further empower IBX to shrink down their administrative burden rather dramatically. As all the information exchange is automated to be in real-time, the Epic Platform will effectively eliminate any need for manual intervention.
Another detail worth a mention here is rooted in how the whole setup will also enhance medication cost transparency. Empowering health systems and providers to have quick and uninterrupted access of benefits information, the underlying platform will tread up a long distance to facilitate meaningful discussions with patients about how much prescribed medications will cost members and, in some cases, suggest lower-cost alternatives if they are available.
Rounding up highlights is the promise to provide comprehensive patient care journey data that gives health systems and providers complete and accurate population health analytics.
“We are excited to modernize our partnership with Independence Blue Cross via their Epic Payer Platform integration. These efforts aim to improve patient health outcomes, reduce provider burden, and grow digitally shared patient data,” said Nathalie S. May, MD, FACP, professor of medicine and chief quality officer at Drexel University College of Medicine.
While all these features are going to be available at launch, IBX also expects the Epic Payer Platform to help it achieve, in the future, complete automation of prior authorization requests and updates so to improve efficiency and reduce delays.
Alongside that, it hopes to conceive a facility where health systems and providers can verify in-network status, and at the same time, access cost/quality ratings. This, in turn, should increase patient satisfaction and optimize value-based care. Not just that, the company will also try and remove the need for manual scanning of physical insurance cards by providing digital ID card access.
Among other things, we must mention that IBX is currently working with health systems and providers, who are already utilizing Epic’s EHR system, to implement the platform in a phased approach.
“We’re excited about the implementation of Epic Payer Platform with Drexel Medicine, Jefferson Health, Main Line Health, and Penn Medicine being the first to join us in this transformation,” said Michael Vennera, executive vice president and chief strategy, technology, and operations officer at Independence Blue Cross. “We expect the platform to transform how we coordinate care for our members with automatic sharing of information with our members’ doctors. There are also anticipated cost savings to both IBX and the health systems and providers on the platform due to decreasing administrative burden.”