New Century Health: Transforming Specialty healthcare with cutting-edge technology

Feature:

It’s an exciting time in the US healthcare industry. Technology solutions are driving innovation and more and more health plans and providers are departing from the traditional ‘fee-for-service’ healthcare model. By paying healthcare providers for keeping people healthy rather than for the cost of their treatment, the new ‘value-based’ models puts an emphasis on long-term outcomes and high-quality, cost-effective care.

It seems that no company is at the forefront of this growing transition like New Century Health, a healthcare service provider based in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Under the direction of Shashi Tripathi, Senior Vice President of Technology and Operational Innovation, the company provides pioneering digital tools which help healthcare professionals in a rapidly evolving digital and clinical landscape.

“We are a specialist business which focuses specifically on cardiology and oncology,” explains Tripathi, “and our aim is to really connect the three important players in healthcare -  specialist providers, healthcare payers and, of course, the patient. Our goal is that by connecting these three stakeholders we can deliver the highest specialty care to the patients in a really cost-effective way.”

Benefiting all stakeholders

New Century Health offers innovative technology, clinical, and analytical solutions which enable high-quality, value-based healthcare. These include solutions such as a point-of-care clinical decision support platform that's integrated into the physician’s practice; and offers evidence-based treatment pathways, physician referral management, and access to clinical quality data. 

Now celebrating its 15th year of success, the company’s business model is an innovative one which delivers for all stakeholders; it reduces the unnecessary variation in care that patients receive, lowers the cost of healthcare, and eases the administrative burden placed on doctors and hospitals. “Physicians and payers are really happy with the model we provide and that's the main reason we have been so successful and continue to grow, says Tripathi.

Given the growing patient population, particularly in oncology and cardiology, practices are under tremendous pressure to deliver high-quality healthcare in the face of increasing clinical complexity, growing administrative tasks and draining resources. Through their nationally deployed digital clinical decision support tools, New Century Health aims to alleviate the burden placed on the healthcare industry so that stakeholders can focus on what matters – providing high-quality healthcare care. 

“Healthcare payers like our services because we offer predictable cost trends whilst maintaining the highest quality care in the market,” Tripathi adds. “Healthcare providers like our services because we offer treatment pathways, clinical guidelines and quality benchmarking tools that are easy to use. As a result, the patient benefits because we are ensuring the delivery of evidence-based care and, in turn, improving the overall quality of care.”

Expertise and innovation

Whilst innovative data and technology are at the heart of New Century Health, the company is keen to champion the deep expertise and skills of its staff, emphasizing that it doesn’t just offer technology, it offers a comprehensive solution focused on improving patient outcomes. “One of the key aspects of New Century Health is that our health solution has two components,” explains, Tripathi. “There's the technology solution - which is the software, the code and the tech -  and then there's expertise and the human element. We offer a collaborative solution that is underpinned and supported by technology, but it really requires the expertise which we also offer to the healthcare payers or providers.”

There is no lack of innovation at New Century Health and maintaining its momentum is perhaps the most pressing challenge the company faces today. “We are innovating and developing solutions very quickly,” notes Tripathi. “My team’s challenge is how we can keep up this innovation in technology and, on top of that, ensure that the solutions are scalable, easy and intuitive to our end users, and of course have a high-level of security and privacy.”

With over 20 years of experience in the industry, Tripathi has established himself as an accomplished healthcare technology leader. Under his guidance, New Century Health hopes to offer an innovative set of tools that enable care delivery stakeholders to effectively deliver high-quality healthcare in a digital landscape. With his deep level of expertise and industry knowledge, he is confident that New Century Health is up to the challenge of creating innovative technologies that meet the needs of healthcare providers, payers, and patients alike. 

Continuing to grow as a national company, New Century Health provides services to more than eight million members across the United States. However, perhaps the company’s greatest asset is that it provides solutions which meet the needs of the marketplace, fitting into the clinical workflow of cardiology and oncology practices all across the country. For instance, by using experience gained from the perspective of physicians, New Century Health has worked hard to minimize the number of mouse-clicks needed to use its digital services and, in doing so, has created intuitive user-facing platforms.

Big data

Tripathi is keen to stress how data can make a difference in care delivery. By operating in 43 states, with about 8,000 providers and eight million members in its specialty care management program, New Century Health can effectively compare and benchmark healthcare providers and pinpoint areas where their treatments align with or deviate from evidence-based care guidelines. For example, solutions may pinpoint that, based on a patient’s specific medical condition and genetic markers, some treatment options are more likely to have better outcomes than others. By using that data, the company can alert physicians of precision-medicine treatment options which ensure that patients receive the highest level of care at a low cost.

“Some of the intellectual property we have invested put into the system is just huge,” notes Tripathi. “We deliver systems to the physicians which enable them to document care, select the appropriate care, and get clinical metrics about how they're delivering care in comparison to their peers, because often there are variations in care that haven’t been as visible before. Additionally, we are delivering a solution that fits into practices all over the board with their own medical health record systems. We are really striking the balance between a customizable solution that meets the needs of the practices and a scalable solution which meets the needs of the marketplace.”

Striking the balance between forward-thinking technology and deep-rooted expertise, New Century Health has become a leader in specialty healthcare solutions, putting the needs of patients, healthcare providers and payers at the core of its vision and ethos.

“We're focused on the total cost of care but our underlying belief is that improving quality drives better outcomes and appropriate costs,” reflects Tripathi. “We want to continue to positively impact the true care of healthcare and we want to remain focused on the specialty side because we feel that's the area where we can help the most and make a difference to provide high-quality care in a cost-effective way.