Signify Health, a prominent provider of technology-enabled healthcare solutions has recently announced the acquisition of PatientBlox, a technology firm with profound expertise in application of distributed ledger technology in healthcare. The acquisition would apparently provide Signify an opportunity to accelerate its  provider payment capabilities in episodes of care, while complementing its commitment to advance value-based care through novel payment and risk solutions.

As per the agreement deal, Signify will incorporate PatientBlox technology into its existing robust and scalable value-based care platform, which supports annual healthcare expenditure of $6B related to federal government’s initiative of bundled payments named BPCI-A, and episodes of care payment programs by health plans and employers. The exclusive PatientBlox technology which is built-for-purpose and highly secure functionality will help in contract and payment administration under a prospective payment model. As a part of this extended platform, Signify intends to offer payers and providers a wide range of payment options to improve their value-based care journey.

Speaking of the initiative, Signify CEO Kyle Armbrester has stated that the company is looking forward to enhancing its value-based payment platform with the novel prospective capability which brings in higher accountability and predictability. Armbrester also added that they are already inclined on strengthening the nation’s innovative payment programs, and this capability will provide significant opportunities to create and support new programs and market entrants.

Meanwhile, PatientBlox Co-Founder and CEO Rahul Sharma has stated that the company has combined its healthcare, fintech, and supply chain experience with machine-learning and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to build the PatientBlox platform. The DLT based platform allows Healthcare Payers to collaborate with Providers thereby offering real time data synchronization across entities which in turn facilitate fast scaling of prospective bundled payment programs.

Sources of knowledge have claimed that the inclusion of blockchain technology is anticipated to cause a further shift from traditional fee-for-service methods. Making payments to the providers at the beginning of the episode helps in incentivizing the providers to drive care redesign as there is shared measurement and accountability at each step of the process, which eventually leads to enhanced care coordination, results and cost savings.

Source credits: https://www.signifyhealth.com/news/signify-health-acquires-patientblox-to-accelerate-prospective-episode-of-care-payment-models-advance-transition-to-value-based-care