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It’s the second Blue Cross-related partnership this year for Quartet, which is backed by Google’s venture arm known as GV. Premera has 1.9 million health plan subscribers and is a known insurance brand in the Pacific Northwest. Quartet formed a similar collaboration with Highmark, parent of Blue Cross plans that provide benefits to 5.2 million people in Pennsylvania and two other states.
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“Our partnership with Premera will bring Quartet to the West Coast for
the first time, making behavioral healthcare more accessible and
integrated into primary care for Washington residents,” Quartet founder
and chief executive Arun Gupta said. “We expect to launch similar
partnerships to bring Quartet’s platform to at least five additional
markets over the next year.”The idea behind the effort is to bring a
value-based model to mental health treatment, which is highly fragmented
and known for a notoriously slow referral process between medical
doctors and behavioral health providers.
Quartet will mine the Blue Cross plans’ claims to better identify patients with undiagnosed mental illness , additional and behavioral health conditions. In addition,
Quartet can link patients via telehealth technology from their primary care doctor’s office for video consultations as well as online behavioral health.
“There is a fundamental connection between behavioral health and
physical health,” Premera chief medical officer Dr. Phil Colmenares
said. “However, we often diagnose and treat these conditions
separately.”
Through better coordination, Quartet and its insurance company partners
say they hope to improve outcomes and save money. “The Premera team
understands the value of integrating behavioral health into the primary
care setting, and the importance of behavioral healthcare to the overall
health and well-being of its members,” Gupta
Financial terms of the transaction between Premera and privately held Quartet were not disclosed. Earlier this year, Quartet raised $40 million from GV as well as other backers that included Oak HC/FT, F-Prime Capital Partners and Polaris Partners.
Other insurers, too, are increasing their investments in value-based mental health making sure they take medications, get more care upfront in a doctor’s office or clinic before the patient gets sick and has a bad outcome that can lead to an expensive hospitalization.
Cigna earlier this year said it would partner with the American Society of Addiction Medicine to come up with an evidence-based approach to substance abuse treatment that could lead to value-based payments rather than the fee-for-service model that is lacking
The health insurance industry is shifting more payments away from fee-for-service medicine that encourages doctors and hospitals to treat by volume of care delivered. The new value-based approach is one that rewards patient outcomes, making sure the right care is given in the right place and at the right time.
Courtesy
Financial terms of the transaction between Premera and privately held Quartet were not disclosed. Earlier this year, Quartet raised $40 million from GV as well as other backers that included Oak HC/FT, F-Prime Capital Partners and Polaris Partners.
Other insurers, too, are increasing their investments in value-based mental health making sure they take medications, get more care upfront in a doctor’s office or clinic before the patient gets sick and has a bad outcome that can lead to an expensive hospitalization.
Cigna earlier this year said it would partner with the American Society of Addiction Medicine to come up with an evidence-based approach to substance abuse treatment that could lead to value-based payments rather than the fee-for-service model that is lacking
The health insurance industry is shifting more payments away from fee-for-service medicine that encourages doctors and hospitals to treat by volume of care delivered. The new value-based approach is one that rewards patient outcomes, making sure the right care is given in the right place and at the right time.
Courtesy
