Cerner will become a minority owner in the parent company of the population health services platform Lumeris as part of a 10-year strategic partnership that includes a new value-based technology offering geared towards Medicare Advantage plans.
The deal allows Cerner to tap into an established Medicare Advantage plan in Missouri, operated by Lumeris. The two companies plan to use data and digital processes to help providers “maximize outcomes” for patients enrolled in value-based arrangements, including Medicare Advantage and provider-sponsored plans.
As part of the deal, Cerner subsidiary Cerner Capital will become a minority stakeholder in Lumaris’ parent company, Essence Group Holdings, purchasing $266 million in stock, according to a financial filing. The company also owns Essence Healthcare, a Lumeris-operated Medicare Advantage plan with 65,000 beneficiaries in Missouri.
Together, Lumeris and Cerner plan to release an “EHR-agnostic” solution called Maestro Advantage, with deployments expected by the end of the year and broad market implementation in 2019. The companies plan to identify systems “best positioned to succeed with the offering, particularly large organizations pursuing multi-year growth strategies.”
Lumeris will also adopt Cerner’s HealtheIntent population health platform.
“By using data to reduce or eliminate unnecessary costs and ineffective transitions of care, providing doctors and their patients a more complete view of their medical history and a health plan that consistently receives high quality scores from CMS, this collaboration with Lumeris aligns well with our mission and illustrates the potential of Cerner technology to positively impact health care economics and outcomes in deeper, more impactful ways than before,” said Cerner CEO Brent Shafer.
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John Doerr, Lumeris board member and chairman of Kleiner Perkins added that the value-based care transition has been “impeded by disjointed technology, cumbersome processes, misaligned incentives and inadequate management of clinical and financial outcomes,” pointing to the partnership’s focus on data transparency and provider empowerment.
The population health management market is expected to grow rapidly over the next decade, reaching $69 billion by 2025, according to Transparency Market Research.