This is the third in a series in which the Penn State Office of Human Resources explains how participation in Penn State Health Care Partners’ clinically integrated network will assist University employees with effective management of their health and chronic conditions, and positively impact overall medical benefit costs.
A key component of Penn State Health Care Partners’ (PSHCP) network is the ability to confidentially collect and share data between caregivers at participating physician practices, hospitals and other facilities to achieve higher-quality care, greater efficiency in care delivery, and better cost-effectiveness than would be possible for any entity alone.
Starting this month, Penn State employees and their adult dependents living in Centre County may begin receiving calls from PSHCP’s care managers as part of a free and innovative pilot program to provide employees and their families access to broader resources to monitor and manage health conditions, especially chronic conditions.
Those calls will be the result of the PSHCP’s ability to ensure collaboration among physicians and other health care providers, and collect and analyze data from sources like electronic medical records (EMRs), clinical quality measures, insurance claims, disease registries, and pharmacy benefit systems.
“Providers in the PSHCP network will communicate with you and with each other to better coordinate your care when you’re sick and the support you need to stay healthy,” said Dr. William Bird, chief medical officer for Penn State Health Care Partners and chair of Family and Community Medicine for the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. “Working together, our care partners develop ongoing programs to improve the quality and delivery of health care services to patients, leading to higher quality and greater efficiency in care delivery.”
Initially, the program will target individuals at risk for health complications due to chronic conditions. PSHCP’s care managers will work with the physicians of Penn State’s University Park employees and adult dependents (members) to identify intervention opportunities for those high-risk members based on their chronic condition and treatment history. Care managers will then contact members to discuss their conditions, treatment options and to offer assistance or guidance with any health-care related issues.
All providers in the PSHCP network exercise the high standards of patient confidentiality as determined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, commonly known as HIPAA, and Penn State members can choose to opt out of the service from the moment they receive their first care manager call. HIPAA also ensures that a member’s health information is kept private and secure, and used only by assigned participants of the care team. Furthermore, no one at Penn State will know anything about a member’s condition or treatment, whether or not the member chooses to stay in the program or opts out.
Ultimately, the University views its participation in the PSHCP’s program as an opportunity for members to receive improved coordinated care from a broad range of providers.
For more information on Penn State Health Care Partners, visit http://pennstatehealthcarepartners.org/.
To read the first two articles in this series, click on the links below:
Penn State Health Care Partners seeks to help with optimal health management
Penn State Health Care Partners’ network to focus on chronic disease management