Singaporean health tech firm Smarter Health and Health Catalyst, a US-based provider of healthcare data analytics solutions, have formed a strategic partnership to help reduce waste across Southeast Asia's healthcare ecosystem by providing efficient data exchange between stakeholders as well as data-driven insights.

In an interview with MobiHealthNews, the companies said their combination provides a solution that enables "efficient and effective data exchange between payors and providers using Smarter Health’s multisided platform and measurable, data-informed improvements using Health Catalyst’s cloud-based Data Operating System".

Smarter Health's platform captures all appropriate data in a digitised, structured and properly codified format, while Heath Catalyst's AI-powered platform is utilised to generate insights that can be leveraged to support potential clinical, financial and operational improvements.

"Specifically, our solution can be deployed to support the entire care episode: Pre-authorisation, evaluation, and issuance of Letter-of-Guarantees (or equivalent); in-flight monitoring of patient progress for active case management; and claims adjudication," they said.

WHY IT MATTERS

According to the companies, their immediate focus is on "enabling the rapid uplift" of payors' capabilities in addressing fraud, waste and abuse (FWA).

They claimed payors leveraging their FWA capabilities will be in a "good position" to use data in conducting collaborative discussions with providers "to ensure that appropriate care is provided at the appropriate cost, which ultimately benefits the patient".

"Furthermore, this will help to moderate the rise in healthcare costs – and insurance premiums – and engender a greater degree of transparency and trust between all stakeholders," they added.

Employer-sponsored health care benefit costs were expected to increase by 8.5% in the Asia-Pacific region this year, according to data from global insurance broker Willis Towers Watson's survey published in October.

Smarter Health and Health Catalyst also pointed out from a 2019 JAMA article that the estimated cost of the US healthcare system's waste went up to $935 billion, equal to a quarter of the total medical spending in that year.

"Given that more than half the world’s population lives in Asia-Pacific, it is [time] to consider establishing the right infrastructure to prevent this from happening," they said.

THE LARGER TREND

Last month, patient financial engagement company Cedar acquired OODA Health, a healthcare administrative platform for payors and providers. With the acquisition, the companies aim to help resolve issues that lead to poor consumer financial experiences and administrative waste in healthcare.

ON THE RECORD

"Using a data-driven approach to improving health outcomes will become increasingly important for the long-term sustainability of any healthcare ecosystem. Together with the deep healthcare expertise of Smarter Health from both a provider and payor perspective, we look forward to transforming healthcare through efforts that will reduce healthcare waste, cut costs and improve clinical outcomes in Southeast Asia," Health Catalyst Asia-Pacific SVP Farhana Nakhooda said.

"Smarter Health’s partnership with Health Catalyst brings a new level of data-informed capability to the healthcare ecosystem in Southeast Asia. By combining Smarter Health’s core competency in creating a robust infrastructure for data exchange between key healthcare stakeholders and Health Catalyst’s best-in-class healthcare data analytics, we are now in the position to drive efficiency, effectiveness, and positive stakeholder experience in all the interactions between payors and providers," Smarter Health COO Dr Lee Hong Huei also said.