Hal Andrews, President and CEO at Trilliant Health joins the podcast to discuss the origins of the hospital's tool, the SimilarityIndex. He touches on the assumptions this tool challenges, what surprised him about the results, and more!
Summary
Hal Andrews, President and CEO at Trilliant Health, Discusses the Origins of the SimilarityIndex Tool
Hal Andrews, President and CEO at Trilliant Health, joins the podcast to discuss the origins of the hospital's tool, the SimilarityIndex. He touches on the assumptions this tool challenges, what surprised him about the results, and more!
The Inaugural Similarity Index Hospitals
Hal Andrews is the President and CEO of TriHealth. Last year, TriHealth released its inaugural Similarity Index Hospitals, which is a fresh take on traditional rankings. It uses machine learning models to identify the 50 most similar peer hospitals for approximately 2000 US hospitals based on quality, financial, competitive, and price data. This year, TriHealth is releasing its second edition of that index, which includes rates data from health plan price transparency machine readable files. Hal shared the origin of the idea for the tool and the difference between actionable and aspirational rankings. He was surprised at how much market considerations jumped out in the identification of peer cohorts.
The Importance of Market Considerations
The data suggests that markets really do matter when it comes to peers. Houston is probably the most dynamic market in terms of site selection and alternate site services. Hal suggests that healthcare providers should focus on being better themselves and not be distracted by rankings. He also recommends that hospitals focus on their true peers from a financial and value performance standpoint. The data also reveals that there is a wide variety of negotiated price for a DRG, while the quality is almost indistinguishable.
Shifting Focus to Employers as Customers
Hal Andrews, President and CEO of Trillion Health, discussed how health systems need to start thinking about employers as their customers. He discussed the differences in negotiated prices where quality is not easily distinguishable and noted that there have not been incentives for payers to control costs. He also mentioned that Trillion Health will be releasing its Similarity Index Hospitals on June 15th.
Note: This is an AI generated transcript, not edited by a staff writer and is solely intended for educational purposes. If you have any questions/concerns, reach out to podcasts@beckershealthcare.com
This episode aired on 06/14/2023 and can be listened here.
Subscribe to Beckers Healthcare Podcast here.