Widening the Lens: Xerox Acquires HCI for Broader View of the Patient

The value in an analytics platform relies on the: (1) quality and quantity of data, (2) modeling and interpretive capability, and (3) application to strategic action.   Xerox makes a play for all three to address health and medical outcomes in its acquisition of Healthy Communities Institute (HCI), announced in mid-May.

HCI provides population health data and analysis tools on tap to inform population health strategy. It makes community health and socio-economic information accessible via a cloud-based platform. The platform includes data visualization and analytics tools, and a database of evidence-based programs that help business users develop localized action plans. Healthcare organizations use the toolset to identify and prioritize at-risk populations to target with health, care, and community programs, meet regulatory requirements for reporting, and as input to grant and funding requests.

This move is first designed to add value to Xerox’s work with healthcare providers. HCI adds an external view to the internal view of patients seen within the hospital walls, and the ability to create more impactful care plans. In this way, the HCI Platform complements the Midas+ Juvo Care Performance capabilities.

Xerox is expanding from case and utilization management support to cover the care continuum more broadly. HCI brings a modern platform and depth in data and expertise to help provide on-demand analytics to guide health and care decisions and actions.
 

This includes:

• Social & economic data by U.S. zip code and dashboard displays: Social, economic, and health indicators displayed in simple green-yellow-red fashion show incidence of adults with asthma next to local air quality, and percentage of adult and child population with health insurance, and metrics on preventable hospitalizations, for example. Looking across all the indicators, healthcare organizations can plan initiatives and interventions designed to better engage people in their health and care.  It also makes more visible the connections and potential impact of networks that are so critical to improving health outcomes.

• Multi-disciplinary expertise and community connection at HCI, which has its roots in Berkeley, California in a Healthy Cities initiative. It grew with the theme that health is the result of more than medical care – that nurturing environments – communities – have an impact. The HCI team of healthcare IT veterans, academicians, health informatics experts, epidemiologists, and urban planners have sunk roots into communities in 35 states and cover more than 100 million lives. This can help bring Xerox’s clients into a better understanding of their constituents and online networking tools to collaborate.

What was absent from the announcement was any reference to use or complement with Xerox’s significant business process outsourcing footprint, which serves two-thirds of the U.S. population. The HCI capability is a natural complement to work that Xerox does already, and it’s a good add to the Midas+ Juvo Care Performance Platform. Xerox and HCI can combine the data, platforms, and other capabilities to provide their clients with an extended value proposition – from managing health through to managing care – from Population Health through Care Management. Longer term, it’s also a nice complement to Xerox’s depth in public sector healthcare, as well as with commercial healthcare payers as they expand from their care management capabilities.  Overall, bringing together Midas+ and HCI is a good move toward Healthier Cities, and we look forward to seeing what Xerox does next.