Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island offers providers platform to harness data

In an effort to improve care quality and coordination, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) plans to arm primary care providers with the power of data.

The insurer's new data and analytics platform--Blue Insights for Rhode Island--will be available free to all primary care clinicians in the state. The platform gives providers access to patient care registries, which BCBSRI says will help them identify care gaps and emerging health concerns among individual patients.

To help clinicians better manage their patients' health, the platform will offer tools that encourage medication adherence, remind patients about scheduling tests or follow-up visits and track the progress of patients who have chronic conditions.

On a broader scale, the platform's use of "comprehensive analysis of payer and provider data" will also help providers make informed choices about specialty physicians, facilities and treatments, BCBSRI says. The next phase of BCBSRI's development of the Blue Insights platform will be to provide new self-service reporting capabilities for providers.

"We want every primary care physician in Rhode Island to use Blue Insights for our members," Erik Helms, vice president of provider network and medical economics for BCBSRI, said in the insurer's announcement. "In creating even closer partnerships with providers, we can collectively refine existing care and disease management programs and continue to advance Rhode Islanders' health."

BCBSRI CEO Peter Andruskiewicz has previously said that insurers can play a key role in motivating providers to improve care by rewarding them for producing better outcomes and lowering costs. The industry, he added, is "pushing toward physician-led, patient-centric systems of care."

In addition, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association has launched a massive database called Axis that it hopes will better inform employers, members and provider partners.

But as insurers increasingly embrace data analytics to further their goals, they also must implement data management practices that include robust processes checks and balances in order to avoid situations that could erode confidence in their data, FierceHealthPayer has reported.

To learn more:
- here's the announcement