Integral Health Network of Southern Arizona (IHNSA), a ONEcare Network managed by Alera Health, and Banner – University Family Care have successfully achieved a momentous 12.1% reduction in the 2023 Medical Loss Ratio (MLR), marking another milestone in their ongoing partnership. This success reflects the collaborative efforts to improve health outcomes and reduce costs for some of Arizona’s most vulnerable populations.
In 2023, IHNSA stood out as one of the best-performing Clinically Integrated Networks (CINs) in the state, excelling not only in reducing MLR but also in improving quality. These results were driven by a robust outreach strategy that successfully engaged hard-to-reach populations, ensuring that their healthcare needs were met.
“Achieving this reduction in MLR required coordinated efforts and innovative outreach strategies,” said Dr. Sandra Stein, Chief Medical Officer with Banner – University Family Care. “We focused on ensuring that members had access to timely and effective care, which played a key role in reaching this goal.”
“Not only do these members have complex medical and behavioral health issues, they are historically unengaged in outpatient care,” shared John Hogeboom, CEO of Community Bridges, Inc. a participant in and board member of IHNSA, “As an integrated system of care, we have had to learn how to collaborate with our competitors as well as hospitals, primary care, and Banner – University Health Plans by sharing data, follow-up tasks, best practices, and innovative tools.”
Looking forward, the two organizations are making plans to expand the number of lives attributed to IHNSA as well as to more closely align Banner Health’s primary care and hospital resources to timely identify and coordinate with IHNSA. “These results are a testament to the promise of integrated care incentivized under value-based contracting,” says Alera Health CEO Mike Rhoades. “We are honored to provide the population health management support and tools and congratulate IHNSA and BUHP on their amazing work.”