Cobalt Ventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC), selected AristaMD for investment because of its unique approach to coordinating care transition services. The investment will allow AristaMD to incorporate decision-support technology to suggest when an electronic consultation, or eConsult, can be used to provide specialist advice about a patient’s care and alert providers when patients are eligible for healthcare services related to the patient’s care needs. With these improvements, AristaMD seeks to accelerate care, health equity and improve both access and outcomes while reducing the overall cost of diagnosis and treatment.
“We seek out opportunities to invest in technology, like AristaMD’s platform, which improves healthcare quality and outcomes, while lowering costs,” said David Eichler, President and Managing Partner of Cobalt Ventures. “AristaMD is developing tools that connect primary care providers with specialist advice and care transition services when and where that advice and care is needed. This investment aligns well with our focus on alternative care delivery and financial and operational value-creation for all industry stakeholders—patients, providers, and payers.”
AristaMD’s eConsult and referral management services provide benefits for the referring physician, the specialist, and the patient by improving access and health equity, enhancing communication, and triggering automatic follow-up. While the platform delivers services to physician practices it also scales to meet the needs of regional and national payers. The referral management application allows hospitals, health systems, accountable care organizations (ACOs), and health insurance companies to quickly route patients to the appropriate care delivery setting, including virtual physician-to-physician consultation or in-network, onsite specialty care.
“With the growth of value-based care payment models, providers, health systems, and payers are focused on high-quality, cost-effective care delivery,” said Brooke LeVasseur, CEO of AristaMD. “Responding quickly to a patient’s need for specialist care and choosing the appropriate care setting and support services impacts patient outcomes and financial performance. This investment will help to create more timely, cost-effective access to health care for patients.”
AristaMD’s eConsult solution empowers primary care providers to expand their scope and collaborate on patient care with a world-class panel of on-demand specialists. Those same PCPs can leverage referral management to select when an eConsult is appropriate or route the patient to a specialist based on criteria such as sub-specialty, location, and the patient’s insurance. During the patient referral process, decision-support tools will also help direct the patient to providers, benefit programs, and health services.
“Physician shortages, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the patient’s location all delay access to specialty care,” added Mrs. LeVasseur. “Improving outcomes is often as simple as reducing the time required to obtain specialist advice. Rapid communication combined with decision-support allows for the selection of the appropriate care setting and healthcare services for each patient—accelerating care, enhancing health equity, improving outcomes, and lowering the cost of care.”
AristaMD’s funding follows its recent acquisition of Preferral, a platform for referral management, analytics, and document routing. Specialists can now use the AristaMD platform to promote their expertise and availability as well as manage the referral process, while payers, health systems and ACOs incorporate AristaMD solutions to route patients to in-network providers, offer eConsults to support PCP care, and obtain market insights.
About Cobalt Ventures
Cobalt Ventures is the strategic venture capital arm of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, the largest not-for-profit health insurer in Missouri and the only not-for-profit commercial health insurer in Kansas City. Cobalt invests in high-growth companies that align with Blue KC’s mission and can scale nationally across the payer industry. Cobalt actively partners with entrepreneurs in bringing innovative solutions to healthcare that increase overall quality, improve outcomes, and lower costs for customers and members. More information about Cobalt Ventures can be found at www.cobalt-ventures.com.