Hudson Health Plan project earns kudos
Insurer uses IT to help disabled members receive preventive care.
Reprinted from the Healthcare IT News
January 2006
BY PATTY ENRADO, Contributing Editor
TARRYTOWN, NY - Hudson Health Plan has been commended by The Center for Health Care Strategies for an innovative project that encourages its disabled members to easily access and receive preventive care.
Healthcare IT plays a central role not only in this project but in Hudson Health Plan's overall mission statement of promoting and providing access to excellent health services for all people. "Technology furthers our goal to improve the quality of healthcare and the access to quality healthcare for all," said Georganne Chapin, president and CEO.
Hudson Health Plan, a not-for-profit managed care organization with 56,000 members, is an acknowledged David among health plan Goliaths in terms of valuing IT. Of its 225 employees, Hudson Health Plan has more than 20 members in its information systems team, with eight full-time developers.
"IT is not new anymore and it's not discretionary," said Chapin. At the same time, "We see IT as a way to touch patients, not provide mere automation," she added.
Eric Brown, vice president of healthcare and life sciences at Forrester Research, noted that because Medicaid and Medicare patients are a sicker population and tend to stay in their plans longer than commercial plan members, healthcare IT investments are accretive to organizations such as Hudson Health Plan.
Chapin pointed out that Medicare and Medicaid programs, in fact, experience a tremendous amount of membership churn, largely due to the complicated yearly recertification and re-enrollment processes.
Reducing the administrative complexities is exactly why Hudson Health Plan created in-house its Facilitated Enrollment Electronic Application, which streamlines Medicaid re-application and recertification processes. Hudson Health Plan plans to make the application broadly available in 2006.
The plan also developed CareFocus™, a medical-office information system designed to improve chronic-disease care. It is currently assessing various diabetes registries and working with physicians and office staff for training and implementation of CareFocus™.
"You can't manage large populations, a network of providers and payments to providers without interfaced IT systems," she said. Hudson Health Plan prefers a build-versus-buy model because it finds that the approach and investment in staff infrastructure pays off project after project.
Chapin stressed that a focus on IT must also be accompanied by the integration of strategic planning with IT, managerial and organizational trust and respect in one another's abilities, and collaborative discussion with colleagues in the industry to share best practices.