NEW YORK, July 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ – Stellar Health (“Stellar”) announced today it is working with Pittsburgh-based Highmark Inc. (“Highmark”), one of America’s leading health insurance organizations, to drive payment transformation and value-based care.

The initiative is an extension of Highmark’s value-based payment and care platform, True Performance. Stellar will help Highmark accelerate new payment models and value-based care (“VBC”) for small, independent practices.

These practices are typically independent of larger medical group or hospital system affiliation and are integral to value-based care delivery in Highmark’s network. The initiative focuses on practice engagement, quality improvement, management of chronic conditions, reduced ED and inpatient utilization, and affordability of care for Highmark members.

Stellar, an innovative value-based care company, activates practices by translating value-based metrics to meaningful and granular workflow steps for providers and their care teams. Stellar’s work with Highmark will build on the success of the existing True Performance suite of programs, which has helped Highmark avoid more than $1.5 billion in health care costs since being established in 2017. Today’s announcement will push that further by allowing practices to deliver the right care at the right time, and reward providers in real time for the completion of quality and utilization value-based measures.

“We have followed Highmark’s success in value-based delivery for years, and our mission at Stellar Health to lower costs and improve health outcomes aligns very well with what they are doing,” said Michael Meng, CEO of Stellar Health. “The True Performance initiative with Stellar aims to reward and incentivize providers and care teams in real time, and our platform does exactly that. We are looking forward to working with the provider groups in Highmark’s network and encourage them to engage with us if they are interested in driving value as well.”

Highmark has chosen to work with Stellar due to their deep experience and their platform’s ability to support Highmark’s strategy of expanding VBC models to small, independent practices.

“We are continuing to accelerate our value-based care strategy through our True Performance Primary Suite, both internally and with external partnerships,” described Sean Burns, Vice President of Provider Payment and Network Infrastructure at Highmark. “Over the past few years, we have developed a robust program that allows practices to thrive in the new value-based care landscape, but we also needed to truly engage and activate small, independent practices. We have evaluated various tools and potential partners, and after a comprehensive and exhaustive search, have decided to work with Stellar Health because of their success in engaging providers of all kinds in value-based care.”

Stellar is committed to driving value-based care outcomes for patients across the state of Pennsylvania. As a sign of this commitment, Stellar has brought on a new board of Advisor – Paul Mango, who is a former PA governor candidate, deputy chief of staff for HHS, McKinsey healthcare consultant and ex-Army Ranger. “Stellar’s product is built for driving outcomes and will find success in engaging the providers that Highmark is looking to include in this initiative,” said Mango.

Stellar works across all lines of business, but this initiative will first focus on Highmark’s Medicare Advantage and Commercial lives. Providers will receive Stellar’s no-cost platform and will get paid early and often for all the extra time spent completing value-based activities.

Stellar and Highmark will start onboarding practices in 2021 with an initial two-year implementation timeline across 50,000 Highmark members. If you’re a small, independent practice in the Highmark network, please contact [hello@stellar.health] for more information on how to participate in the program.

To read the full press release, click here.