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Population Health Takes Center Stage as Healthix Forms New Committee

Talking one-on-one with Joseph Lamantia, MHA

Joseph Lamantia, MHA
Vice President, Population Health Management Executive Director, Northwell Health Solutions

Joseph Lamantia, Chairman of the newly createdHealthix Population Health Committee

1. What do you hope to bring to Healthix as a new Board Member?

I have both a global interest, as well as professional interest for Northwell Health, to better understand the depth of information available through Healthix – its reliability, timeliness and usefulness. It will give me a chance to better understand the day-to-day operation of the RHIO and provide greater insight into how Healthix services can be used more robustly. The Healthix Population Health Committee will convene a group of people who share common interests and are immersed in developing platforms to advance value-based care with data from Healthix at the forefront.

2. How were the members of the Healthix Population Health Committee identified?
We are interested in working with people who are challenged with tasks that are needed to deliver value-based care. These are representatives from diverse organizations – payers, primary care physicians, community based organizations. We want to see things from different perspectives.

3. In your role as Vice President, Population Health Management Executive Director, Northwell Health Solutions have you seen a perceptible shift from how care is delivered now?
One major shift that is occurring is one of culture and understanding of what constitutes value-based care and the key levers that help to drive improvement. Value-based care, or value-based payment is moving toward outcomes, i.e,. what happens within a 30 day episode versus one particular hospitalization. We are looking at the patient as a whole, helping to coordinate care, navigate services and helping to improve patient self-management, often following up with them days, weeks, and even months after a visit to help address any barriers they may have that potentially can result in a less then optimal outcome. The foundation of Northwell’s value-based platform includes robust data analytics, practice-based care management, transitional care management and home-based care management for advanced illness patients. The idea is to bring service to patients on all 3 fronts. We are focused on subsets of populations – particularly high and rising risk patients. These typically requires a “heavy touch” from a patient engagement standpoint.  Daily alerts and notifications delivered through our internal health information exchange help us to intervene at the point of care and based upon their level of risk follow up via home visits or telephonically when they are back in their home.

4. Are patients aware of this shift in care?
At Northwell the patients enrolled in care management feel as though this is part of typical hospital stay.  The heavy touch model tends to yield a very high level of patient satisfaction. We look at these positive outcomes as a value on investment.

5. Is New York lagging behind other parts of the country in transformation of care?
New York has been in the migration from a fee-for-service model to a value-based model, however the Payers are becoming more and more active in discussions relates to value-based payment. Ultimately success in the arena of value-based care will not only require an investment in infrastructure, it will also require behavioral and cultural change in the way we deliver care. I’d like to see us continue to tap into organizations such as Healthix to raise awareness. HIE is a strong component in the foundation of value-based care – where we point this infrastructure will help us work collaboratively with payers and providers will help to align our goals.

 


Joseph Lamantia, MHA
Vice President, Population Health Management Executive Director, Northwell Health Solutions

Mr. Lamantia has joined Northwell Health as the Vice President of Population Health Management and the Executive Director of Health Solutions, the care management organization of Northwell Health.  In his role, he oversees strategy and operations of the care management organization and partners with Northwell Health clinical and operational leadership to support Northwell Health’s performance in value-based care and alternative payment models.  Mr. Lamantia previously served as Chief of Operations for Population Health at Stony Brook University Hospital and as Executive Director of the Suffolk Care Collaborative, a New York State Performing Provider System (PPS) in the Medicaid Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment Program (DSRIP).

Prior to his role at Stony Brook, Mr. Lamantia served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of South Nassau Communities Hospital, a 435-bed hospital for approximately seven years.  In addition, Mr. Lamantia worked for Northwell Health (formerly the North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System) for approximately 16 years in multiple capacities, including serving as Executive Director of Franklin Hospital and Associate Executive Director of Finance for Plainview Hospital. Additionally, he spent two years as a manager for Ernst & Young’s national healthcare consulting practice.