Health Access Solutions, provider of a patient-centric Coordinated Care Platform that enables communication and collaboration between physicians, hospitals, payers and patients, announced that its Coordinated Care Platform has been deployed by Anthem Blue Cross to enable the Individual Practice Association Medical Group of Santa Clara County (SCCIPA) to support the first accountable care organization (ACO) across northern California. The Coordinated Care Platform will support the critical chain of effective communication and collaboration between SCCIPA physicians that will drive the success of the Anthem Blue Cross ACO.

In a release, Pam Kehaly, president of Anthem Blue Cross, said, "SCCIPA's investment in innovative technology-- as well as its demonstrated quality clinical and administrative management performance across an electronically integrated network -- makes it an optimal partner to offer our first ACO model in northern California.”

By leveraging the Coordinated Care Platform from Health Access Solutions, SCCIPA has been successful in enabling more than 800 physicians to securely link over the Web to deliver advanced care for patients. Health Access Solutions technology platform has been designed to incorporate the Access Express for care management and Excelicare for clinical management. The platform makes it possible for the SCCIPA to handle patient cases by employing technologies such as protocols for medical management and multi-modal patient engagement. Furthermore, the platform will provide clinical information pertaining to patients care and treatment to virtually integrated care teams from across various organizations. 

J. Kersten Kraft, MD, a practicing urologist and president of SCCIPA, said, "The Health Access Solutions Coordinated Care Platform has been instrumental in helping us achieve the goal of providing collaborative, patient-centered care. The technology allows us to continue to refine our coordinated care model to better deliver a quality member experience. As we work towards launching this ACO, the role of Health Access Solutions' technology cannot be overstated."

The Anthem Blue Cross ACO will serve approximately 25,000 provider organization members that have their physicians serving over the SCCIPA's network.

Randall Frakes, chief executive officer of Health Access Solutions, said that, "Health Access Solutions is a proud partner of SCCIPA and we are pleased that our Coordinated Care Platform has helped the organization to make this great leap while continuing to provide excellent care to its patients. Health IT solutions will play a vital role in ensuring the success of all ACOs."