Henry Ford Health has launched a population health subsidiary to help manage high-risk patients' conditions and reduce costs tied to preventable hospitalizations or readmissions.
Troy, Michigan-based Populance is described by the nonprofit health system as an extension of the “dozens” of case management programs it and its insurance subsidiary, Health Alliance Plan, have designed over the past two decades.
Those programs—often designed with value-based care strategies in mind—will be supported at Populance with health analytics capabilities to help spot and address high-risk patients, the system said.
“Because we know this approach to population health management works—for our patients, our members and our physicians—we want to make these services available to other physicians, health systems and health plans to create healthier, more equitable outcomes in all the communities we serve,” Robin Damschroder, president of value-based enterprise and chief financial officer at Henry Ford Health, said in a release.
The new company is staffed by 150 employees and currently serves about 600,000 patients, Henry Ford Health said.
Its suite population health management services include patient monitoring and digital outreach tools that allow case managers to keep tabs on chronic disease patients. Case managers also have insight into other factors in a patient’s health—safe housing, transportation and access to healthy foods—and can connect them to support services if lacking.
“Our team members are already deeply rooted in this community just like our patients are. We know these populations,” said Christopher Stanley, M.D., who was tapped as Populance’s president from a prior role as Sutter Health’s chief population health officer.
“Populance knits together information from physicians, hospitals and health plans, as well as patients themselves, allowing our nurses, social workers and other health professionals to help physicians meet the medical and social needs for community members who need help the most,” he said.
The company said its teams can also help healthcare organizations with specialty condition management, extended (six- to eight-month) supportive care and transitions from one care setting to another.
Populance’s website points to the high costs incurred by chronic and mental health conditions. Though the subsidiary expects to improve outcomes via case management, it also outlined a focus on “utilization effectiveness” where managers and clinical teams direct patients “to use the most appropriate and beneficial treatments at the lowest cost.” At the same time, those teams would “proactively” support those who are higher risk or frequent users of emergency room or hospital care.
All of these services should prove appealing to other providers and insurers who are increasingly adopting models prioritizing quality and value-based care, Henry Ford Health said.
“Populance is one of only a handful of organizations—both regionally and nationally—who can do this work at this scale,” Damschroder said. “We have the capabilities and are poised to make a positive impact on the health outcomes of all we serve, especially our most vulnerable populations.”