A report released this week by KLAS found that Arcadia, Epic and Innovaccer stand out when it comes to customer experience, market energy and breadth of population health management capabilities.  

In the report, researchers noted that customer success with PHM frequently hinges on ongoing vendor optimization.   

"Provider organizations looking to advance their value-based care strategies often look to population health management technology to give them the confidence to move forward with value-based care," said KLAS researchers.  

WHY IT MATTERS  

Overall, the report shows that Arcadia and Innovaccer are the most frequently considered and chosen population health management vendors, "with organizations citing the platforms’ flexible customization, broad functionality and focus on data."   

Epic came in third on the list, followed by Optum.   

The study referred to customers' assessment of Arcadia's functionality and data integration as strengths, as well as Innovaccer's customizability, workflows and risk algorithms.

Although Epic was also frequently considered thanks to the EHR-PHM tool integration, its customers "would like more customized functionality to meet the varied needs of value-based reimbursement contracts in their region," said KLAS researchers.  

Population health management tools can provide a variety of interconnected functionalities to assist organizations in their efforts. These services include data acquisition, data analysis, care management, administrative/financial reporting, patient engagement and clinician engagement.  

When it comes to overall adoption of that functionality across pillars, Epic leads the way among vendors working primarily with large hospitals, with Arcadia and Cerner close behind in the KLAS report.  

HealthEC was first among vendors that work primarily with ambulatory organizations and/or physician-led ACOs.

And among those working primarily with federally qualified health centers, NextGen Healthcare was tops.  

Meanwhile, with regard to customer collaboration, the report said, "Innovaccer, Azara Healthcare, Cedar Gate Technologies (Enli), and HealthEC create true partnerships with customers and are considered supportive and involved."  

THE LARGER TREND  

The COVID-19 pandemic put a new spotlight on population health management, with strained healthcare systems leaning on wide-ranging tools to best address the needs of diverse patient cohorts.  

"My world before COVID consisted of taking care of patients one at a time," said Dr. Jaan Sidorov, president of the Population Health Alliance board, this past April. "Now, my duty is to serve an entire patient population."  

But tool functionality varies, with some technology better suited to certain use cases than others.  

"Having a good understanding of how these many tools and platforms can work for specific organizational strategies is essential," Bill Siwicki wrote in Healthcare IT News this past year.  

ON THE RECORD  

Of the leading vendors, "their customers include some of the country’s largest healthcare organizations and some of the organizations most aggressively pursuing value-based care practices," according to KLAS.  

"Many customers are confident these vendors will continue to develop their technology to meet customer needs and address current weaknesses," said researchers.

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Twitter: @kjercich
Email: kjercich@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.