Mercy and Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM), one of the nation’s leading health and well-being companies, have partnered to develop an Accountable Care relationship designed to improve the health outcomes for Humana Medicare Advantage members in Southwest Missouri.

Humana’s Accountable Care Continuum is a pay-for-value system focused on promoting evidence-based, highly-integrated care, which can lead to improved medical member outcomes, a better customer experience and lower costs.

Humana’s newest accountable care agreement with Mercy is one of its farthest reaching. Along with coordinated care from the Mercy team in Southwest Missouri, Humana Medicare Advantage members will benefit from Mercy’s larger network whenever they travel in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma. Their medical records will be instantly available at any of Mercy’s 33 hospitals, 700 outpatient facilities and more than 2,100 physicians across four states.

“Accountable care ultimately succeeds when our members and Mercy’s patients experience a more seamless health care system that effectively creates long-term health in addition to treating sickness,” said Beth West, Missouri Senior Products Director for Humana. “Our arrangement with Mercy has solid potential to drive down costs and improve outcomes through aligned financial incentives.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Humana will offer value-based incentives that align provider rewards with patient health. Patients will receive customized care through doctor resources, such as real-time “gap in care” identification, predictive modeling and electronic health records. These tools also ensure better patient care coordination, more cost-effective, quality care and a world-class patient experience for Humana members.

“The accountable care agreement with Humana leverages our two primary strengths – the ability of our health care team to coordinate care for our patients and our broad geographic reach, which allows for widespread access,” said Dr. Jim Rogers, Mercy Vice President for Adult Primary Care. “Now, our patients will have another opportunity to lower their health costs and continue to receive the high-quality, evidence-based care for which Mercy is known.”

Humana’s Accountable Care Continuum is guided by the company’s integrated health approach; a defined, measurable patient population, and pay-for results based on improved clinical outcomes and reduced costs.

Humana has a 25-year Accountable Care relationship history with more than one million members that are cared for by 33,000 primary care physicians, in more than 900 Accountable Care relationships across 40 states and Puerto Rico.

About Mercy

Mercy is the sixth largest Catholic health care system in the U.S. and serves more than 3 million people annually. Mercy includes 33 acute care hospitals, four heart hospitals, two children’s hospitals, two rehab hospitals and one orthopedic hospital, nearly 700 clinic and outpatient facilities, 40,000 co-workers and more than 2,100 Mercy Clinic physicians in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has outreach ministries in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. For more information, visit www.mercy.net

About Humana

Humana Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is a leading health care company that offers a wide range of insurance products and health and wellness services that incorporate an integrated approach to lifelong well-being. By leveraging the strengths of its core businesses, Humana believes it can better explore opportunities for existing and emerging adjacencies in health care that can further enhance wellness opportunities for the millions of people across the nation with whom the company has relationships.

More information regarding Humana is available to investors via the Investor Relations page of the company’s web site at www.humana.com, including copies of:

  • Annual reports to stockholders
  • Securities and Exchange Commission filings
  • Most recent investor conference presentations
  • Quarterly earnings news releases
  • Replays of most recent earnings release conference calls
  • Calendar of events (including upcoming earnings conference call dates and times, as well as planned interaction with research analysts and institutional investors)
  • Corporate Governance information