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Nonprofit plans expansion

By TED GRIGGS The Advocate Published: Dec 27, 2009 At right: Chris Williams, of eQHealth Solutions, left, shows Dr. Gregory Ward how an electronic medical records system works.

Baton Rouge, LA - Earlier this year, Louisiana Health Care Review changed its name to eQHealth Solutions, a move the Baton Rouge-based nonprofi t believes will help it secure more out-of-state contracts helping health care providers improve quality and efficiency.

“I think we’re on a trajectory to be a $125 million to $150 million company in somewhere between 15 and 17 years,” Chief Executive Officer Gary Curtis said.
The firm plans to push all of its expertise — successful programs include reducing limb amputation among diabetics and Medicaid fraud —- into care coordination, Curtis said.

The nonprofit will work with patients, health-care providers such as hospitals and physicians, hospital associations, consumers and consumer advocacy groups.

Health industry members say that by coordinating the different aspects of patient care, providers will improve the quality of care while better controlling costs.

“The problems with the lack of care coordination are now becoming so pronounced and so self-evident that more and more states are looking to put together a response that they can afford,” Curtis said.

There are around 40 Quality Improvement Organizations nationwide, Curtis said. The groups help providers improve care and patient safety. The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services spends roughly $367 million each year on the QIO program, said Peter Ashkenaz, spokesman for the agency. CMS supports the increase of competition among the Quality Improvement Organizations as much as is possible.

Curtis said eQHealth hopes to capitalize on that competition for contracts. By 2025 or so, eQHealth expects to have offices in six to eight states, he added. In addition to its offices in Louisiana, eQHealth has offices in Illinois and Mississippi, Curtis said.

In Louisiana, eQHealth works for Medicare, the federal program for seniors. In Mississippi and Illinois, eQHealth works for Medicaid, the state program that helps poorer residents get health care. The company’s contracts cover everything from home health and long-term care to inpatient and outpatient hospital services, Curtis said. eQHealth has also done work in Texas and Arkansas and is targeting contracts in Missouri, Kentucky and Florida.

“Ours is pretty much a slow-growth strategy. We’ve added big new pieces of work about every five years,” Curtis said. The company tends to work very closely with clients and has to understand what it takes to get the job done in their state under their political situation, Curtis said. eQHealth also has to understand what is driving the costs for a particular problem and how quickly the state can address the problem.

The company really has to understand not only what its clients think they need but what they really need, Curtis said. He compared it to a home repair contractor who’s called in for one job but quickly realizes that a leaky roof will eventually lead to much larger problems. “We build the relationships that they can count on us to fix the problems they know about and identify the ones they don’t,” Curtis said. “And that just takes a certain amount of time.”

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