Signify Health, a leading provider of technology-enabled healthcare solutions designed to keep people healthy and happy at home has acquired PatientBlox, an Atlanta-based technology company with deep expertise in applying distributed ledger technology in healthcare. The acquisition accelerates Signify’s prospective provider payment capabilities for episodes of care, supporting the company’s commitment to advance value-based care through novel payment and risk arrangements. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
The addition of blockchain technology enables a further shift away from traditional fee-for-service models. By making payments to providers at the start of the episode, providers are incentivized to drive care redesign because there is shared measurement and accountability at every step of the process, which results in improved care coordination, outcomes, and cost savings.
An episode of care is a healthcare event — a condition or a treatment — that is marked by a sequence of interactions between a patient and providers. The blockchain can capture each of those interactions and the patient’s care milestones that trigger payments. The PatientBlox platform is designed to manage these transactions without relying on fee-for-service claims.
As part of the acquisition, Signify will integrate the PatientBlox technology into its already robust and scalable value-based care platform, which supports $6B in healthcare spend annually associated with the federal government’s bundled payment program, BPCI-A, and episodes of care payment programs by health plans and employers.
The proprietary PatientBlox technology is built-for-purpose and highly-secure, enabling functionality that facilitates contract and payment administration under a prospective payment model. Under its expanded platform, Signify will offer payers and providers a diverse array of payment options to meet them where they are in their value-based care journey.