Innovation Care Partners Transforms Referral Management For More Than 2500 Providers In ACO

How ReferralMD Improved ICP’s Referral Operations

Introduction

Innovation Care Partners (ICP) is a clinically integrated network and Accountable Care Organization. ICP is committed to supporting independent, self-employed and employed physicians. ICP delivers value-based healthcare defined by superior quality and patient-centered services. Formed in 2012, ICP launched with 430 physicians and approximately 3,500 lives covered. Today ICP has more than 2,400 physician members and covers more than 230,000 patients. Clinical Integration is key to improving healthcare quality while eliminating inefficient spending.  ICP’s physician-led network offers the tools necessary to deliver best practice patient care. 

Implementation

In September of 2024, ICP selected ReferralMD as their new referral management platform, replacing their previous referral management system which was sunsetting at the end of the year.  In only 14 weeks, ICP and ReferralMD completed the implementation process across over 300 ICP network organizations.  The implementation included eight third-party integrations and data loads including: integrations with ICP’s Membership Database, ICP’s Health Information Exchange, Epic, other EHR and third-party systems, and multiple data loads to transition referrals from the legacy system.  The integration with ICP’s Membership Database allows organizations, practices, locations and providers across the ICP network to be automatically added, updated and deactivated in ReferralMD without any manual updates or maintenance.

The accelerated 14-week implementation for an enterprise project of this scale was only possible with effective governance with the ICP and ReferralMD project leads.  Highly responsive communications and consistent meetings helped facilitate the accelerated project timeline.  The implementation started with a comprehensive enterprise online project plan that was developed by ReferralMD and monitored by the ICP project leads.  The project plan outlined the individual integration projects and data loads along with workflow analysis, system configuration, testing, approvals, training and go-live preparations.  Also during the implementation, ReferralMD designed, developed and released over 40 product enhancements based on the business needs of ICP.

Outcomes

At the beginning of the implementation process, ICP defined the following objectives, and after using ReferralMD for one year, achieved the following outcomes as a result of automation, decision support tools and streamlined processes:

• 87% faster scheduling of routine appointments. Patients requiring appointments within one week were scheduled in an average of 0.9 days, far exceeding the seven-day objective.
• 78% faster scheduling of appointments within two weeks. Average scheduling time improved from a 14-day target to 3.1 days.
• 97% faster scheduling of appointments within one month. Average scheduling time was reduced to 1.0 day versus the 30-day objective.
• 95% faster scheduling of patient-preference appointments. Patients requesting specific providers were scheduled in an average of 4.7 days instead of the 90-day objective.
• 44% reduction in network leakage. Outbound referrals leaving the ICP network decreased from the 25% target to 14%, helping keep more patients within the network.
• 363% increase in referrals processed per account. Participating organizations averaged 37 referrals per month per account, compared to the original target of eight referrals.

ICP is now able to manage over 340 network organizations more effectively using ReferralMD through standardization, automation and analytics.  Network organizations increased the number of referrals processed by 69%, from an average of 19,975 referrals per month to 33,759 referrals per month after one year using ReferralMD, without increasing staffing levels.

Referral processing times also improved substantially.  Organizations reduced the average time required to process outbound referrals from 5.1 days to 4.0 days, a 21% reduction in processing time, allowing referrals to reach specialists sooner and patients to be scheduled more quickly.

These productivity improvements were made possible with the following features in ReferralMD:

• Centralized Platform: All organizations across the ICP integrated network are using ReferralMD to send and receive referrals, exchange messages and share status updates without phone calls or faxes.
• Centralized Management: Using their ReferralMD account, ICP is able to manage individual ReferralMD accounts across organizations in their network
• Standard Workflow: Even though each organization has its own ReferralMD account, ICP established standardized referral management workflow and settings across all network organizations.
• Automated Maintenance: Practices, locations and providers are automatically updated in each organization’s ReferralMD account through the integration with ICP’s Membership Database.
• Epic Integration: With a robust bidirectional integration with Epic, providers stay within the EHR and the Customer Navigation Center stays within ReferralMD, eliminating duplicate data entry and resulting in more operational efficiencies.
• SmartMatch Rankings: Customized algorithm generates a curated list of in-network specialists for each patient based on accepted insurance, provider network tiers, proximity, etc.
• Automated Alerts: Automated alerts based on rules ensure that referrals do not fall through the cracks and identifies referrals that need attention, reducing time spent searching and triaging referrals.
• Automated Communications: Automated patient communications with targeted messages across the workflow eliminate phone calls and emails and ensure that patients are kept in the loop.
• Improved Analytics: On-demand and automated reporting in ReferralMD and automated data feeds to ICP’s data warehouse allow ICP to transform data into actionable insights.

Looking Forward

ICP continues to partner with ReferralMD to implement additional EHR integrations across organizations in its network, further streamlining workflows and improving operational efficiency. Together, ICP and ReferralMD monitor automated performance reports that track key performance indicators (KPIs) across the network. These insights enable both organizations to continuously identify opportunities for improvement, optimize referral operations, and enhance the experience for patients, providers, and staff.

Innovation Care Partners is an organization strategically launched to transform healthcare delivery in the local community.

ICP is a clinically integrated network and Accountable Care Organization. ICP is wholly owned by HonorHealth and is committed to supporting independent, self-employed physicians as well as those employed by HonorHealth. ICP delivers value-based healthcare defined by superior quality and patient-centered services. Formed in 2012, ICP launched with 430 physicians and covered approximately 3,500 patients. Today ICP has more than 2,400 physician members, covers more than 230,000 patients. Clinical Integration is key to improving healthcare quality while eliminating inefficient spending, and ICP’s physician-led network offers the tools necessary to deliver best practice patient care.

Learn more at www.innovationcarepartners.com