Mirth Selected by Health First Network for Population Health and Risk Management

Mirth a subsidiary of Quality Systems, reported that Health First Network, (HFNI), an Independent Physicians Association (IPA), has selected Mirth Care Enterprise as a critical component of their healthcare information technology strategy.

With more than 700 physicians and more than 200 care extenders throughout Northwest Florida, HFNI noted, it will use Mirth Care Enterprise to support the delivery of high-quality care across their patient populations, improve health outcomes and reduce operational costs. Through this relationship, the organizations will build and sustain new healthcare delivery models while preserving physician membership independence.

According to a release, the association will employ Mirth Care Enterprise to connect disparate Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology used by member providers; coordinate clinical and administrative data to help avoid duplicate tests and other unnecessary medical treatments; and, gather, analyze and benchmark performance across the network. To improve care quality and coordination across its growing network of providers and patients, in both fee-for-service and risk-based payment patients, HFNI will deploy the technology in its Medicare ACO and aims to leverage its capabilities to support their expansion into Medicaid shared-risk arrangements.

"Having much-needed access to important clinical and financial information that historically lived in disparate health information systems enables us to better understand patient activity and proactively coordinate care across our entire network," explained Richard M. Tuten, president and chief executive officer for HFNI. "The Mirth Care Enterprise platform provides our physicians with the tools needed to not only make informed clinical decisions, but to fully understand and know their patient population. We believe we are in an excellent position to align practices with an ACO model, lead in payer negotiations, and are also well equipped to support practices with the level of coordination and patient population management required to succeed in emerging value-based and shared- risk environments."

"The harmonization of clinical, financial, and operational data can empower physician leadership and care coordination teams to guide actions that directly align with revenue and quality goals," stated Jon Teichrow, senior vice president of research and development for Mirth. "Mirth Care Enterprise incorporates comprehensive patient engagement and care coordination technology solutions that decrease healthcare costs and maximize new revenue opportunities for physician practices. Partnering with organizations like Health First reaffirms our ability to provide the vendor neutral population health management market with a comprehensive solution that supports care management and analytics across diverse ambulatory EHR platforms."

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