Funded by the Department of Health and Human Services Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the project will evaluate the impact of a consultation and referral platform integrated into an EHR. Referred to as “e-consult technology,” the web-based system helps primary care providers and specialists share information and discuss patient care.

UHC will be collaborating with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), Dobson DaVanzo & Associates, a health care consultant based in Washington, D.C., and five academic medical centers on the project. The medical centers include Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H.; UC San Diego Health System; University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, Iowa; University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, Va.; and University of Wisconsin (UW) Health in Madison, Wis.
"Given the accelerating shift to value-based reimbursement, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of care delivery is critical to academic medical centers’ success," said Bob Browne, MPP, UHC vice president, clinical enterprise integration, in a statement. "Consistent care coordination and timely access to the input of specialists through the use of e-consultation/e-referral technology is a novel way for AMCs to improve cost, quality and access. UHC looks forward to collaborating with five of our esteemed AMC members and the AAMC to understand how this technology can have a positive impact on the future of health care delivery."
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) developed the technology that is being evaluated for the project. One advantage to the program at UCSF is that primary care physicians can send a message electronically to a specialist about a patient and receive an answer within 72 hours.
UHC says the system has been shown to significantly improve quality of care through improved coordination and timely access to specialist input, while reducing the costs of care by fewer referrals and reduced fragmentation of care. UHC will partner with the AAMC and coordinate with its participating members to evaluate the impact of the intervention on metrics such as quality, cost, access and patient and provider satisfaction.
Dobson DaVanzo & Associates will help to create a payment model for consideration by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to sustain and scale this innovation beyond the award period.

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