Intermountain Healthcare has launched a new healthcare company with the aim of helping providers, payers, accountable care organizations and others manage the challenges of value-based reimbursement.

WHY IT MATTERS
The new company, named Castell, seeks to help these organizations speed their transition from volume to value-based care, with analytics, decision support and other innovative tools hatched at Intermountain.

Rajesh Shrestha, who also serves as chief operating officer of Community Based Care for Intermountain, has been named president and CEO of Castell.

The company aims to make some of the tools and best practices developed at the Salt Lake City-based health system available to other healthcare organizations seeking to improve their ability to offer value-based care.

Among the technologies and services it will offer: guidance for implementing the Intermountain-developed clinical care model known as Reimagined Primary Care; analytics to help steer clinical decision-making toward value-based standards; streamlined affiliated network management and technology to help providers with virtual care, patient experience and social determinants of health.

"Backed by Intermountain’s day-to-day frontline experience with a focus on population health management, Castell will deliver impactful solutions that help other organizations improve outcomes and keep costs more affordable," said Shrestha.

THE LARGER TREND
Intermountain hopes that Castell's offerings, giving access innovative care pathways and clinical best practices developed at the health system, will help others to build on its own successes and lessons learned.

Just a year after launching, for example, Reimagined Primary Care model, which enables population health management by enabling physicians to focus on their highest-risk patients,l has already enabled a 60% reduction in Medicare Advantage admissions; 25% fewer commercial insurance admissions and a20% decreased per-member per-month costs, according to Intermountain – while also boosting patient and physician satisfaction.

ON THE RECORD
"Healthcare’s ongoing shift from volume to value-based systems of care enables providers, health systems, and payers to take a more holistic approach to managing the health of their patients, but also creates more financial risk or rewards," said Shrestha. "The health platform capabilities, tools, and resources that Castell provides will strengthen the ability of the health ecosystem to thrive in a value-based care environment."

"Castell is a critical component of Intermountain’s broad vision for healthier communities," added Intermountain president and CEO Dr. Marc Harrison. "It creates a new path for providers to access the support they need to provide high quality, affordable care to their patients across the nation."

Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com

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