Accumen: Accelerating Healthcare Outcomes and Profitability

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Jim Brady, COO, Accumen

With value-based care becoming more regulated than ever, there is a renewed directive for healthcare organizations to cut costs while maximizing quality. As payers tie the reimbursement amounts to quality of care, the revenue of health systems is greatly impacted. Performing a thorough examination of savings opportunities is necessary to find the areas that can be impacted most easily and yield the greatest results. Identifying savings opportunities can be time-consuming and many are missed or overlooked, which results in the savings not being achieved. This is where Accumen steps in. The company has identified lab and imaging as two departments in the supply chain that can save the greatest amount of money. A focus on optimizing the supply chain can help offset the approximately 25 percent reductions in reimbursements felt during the past three years due to legislation such as the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA) for the clinical laboratory. Jim Brady, COO of Accumen, believes that having a strong ancillary supply chain can help reduce costs. A recent Navigant analysis found that unnecessary supply chain spending costs hospitals $25.7 billion a year. The same study found that hospitals can cut supply chain spending significantly—saving an average of $12.1 million per facility— while still delivering the same or greater quality of patient care.

Accumen’s proprietary model determines ways to save money and improve quality in the healthcare organization’s ancillary supply chain operations with no upfront fees. “Our supply chain experts have created a model using proprietary lab benchmarking data combined with deep niche supply chain execution expertise to help identify and implement cost savings while maintaining or improving quality,” says Brady. Accumen infuses its people, process, and technology into the existing ancillary supply chain operations to identify and implement immediate cost savings opportunities while allowing the health system to retain their decision-making authority.

Our supply chain experts have created a model using proprietary lab benchmarking data combined with deep niche supply chain execution expertise to help identify and implement cost savings while maintaining or improving quality

The company’s model provides data that are not typically accessible to make the best decisions for the health system. On average, the company helps health systems and hospitals to save five to seven percent per year, which is 15-20 percent savings over a three-year partnership. “We take on 100 percent of the risk. If our client does not see real, proven cost savings, then we don’t get paid,” he adds.

The company’s customized approach optimizes the client’s laboratory to drive revenue growth. By standardizing labs, clients can decrease their overall lab cost structure by 28 percent per test by creating efficiencies in the supply chain, labor, and patient blood management. Similarly, Accumen’s imaging excellence program helps clients optimize operations, reduce supplies and service costs, and implement efficiencies within their imaging department while improving patient satisfaction and quality. At the same time, the company provides actionable insight into performance at all levels. Here, Accumen has generated 17 percent of total cost savings for hospitals by improving staff productivity and equipment utilization.

The company stands strong on its three pillars—people, process, and technology. With experts in the supply chain, imaging, technology, and lab, the company offers the depth of knowledge to look at a health system holistically and uncover all the ways to save money, increase efficiency and improve quality. Accumen’s supply chain experts work alongside clients to meet their goals and implement a long-term strategic sourcing roadmap that is sustainable for the future.

Staying true to its mission of maximizing healthcare performance, Accumen is constantly looking for areas within health systems and hospitals that need support. “We began as a lab transformation company, and our clients requested that we expand into the imaging space,” says Brady. Along the same lines, the company is planning to expand into other areas within the healthcare continuum while remaining focused on its core competencies and competitive advantages.

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Company
Accumen

Headquarters
Phoenix, AZ

Management
Jim Brady, COO and BG Porter, CEO

Description
ACCUMEN utilizes healthcare technology along with its expert performance team to drive value to hospital, health system, commercial laboratory, and health plan clients. The company provides strategic solutions, services and technology that deliver sustainable performance improvements in operations, clinical services, and data management. These offerings include lab and imaging transformation, consulting, supply chain optimization, lab outreach, patient blood utilization, test utilization, anemia management and clinical data exchange. ACCUMEN’s offerings enable its clients to achieve and exceed their cost, quality, and service targets, as well as deliver excellent patient care through evidence-based data and clinical decision support capabilities.