Banner Health Eyes Connected Health Strategy With Digital Health Formulary

As providers become more comfortable with prescribing connected health services, healthcare organizations are creating their own formularies and giving their doctors a menu of preferred mHealth apps, devices and solutions.

The latest to do this is Banner Health, which rolled out a digital health program last month on its Cerner electronic health record platform. In doing so, the Phoenix-based, 30-hospital health system is looking to create the infrastructure for a hybrid healthcare strategy that includes a robust remote patient monitoring platform.

“Our patients want a higher level of access,” particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, says Jeff Johnson, Banner’s vice president of innovation and clinical health. Clinicians, as well, want a “higher level of connectivity” with their patients, allowing them to collaborate on care outside the hospital or clinic and in the home, where more care actually happens these days.

Formularies aren’t new concepts, but have been slow to take root because of the crowded and uncertain nature of the mHealth marketplace – often referred to as the “Wild Wild West.” With hundreds of thousands of apps and other products available, it’s difficult to pick and choose which ones work best (or at all). And healthcare providers don’t have the time or the inclination to do the sorting.

With organizations like the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), the American Telemedicine Association and the UK’s National Health Service creating vetting processes for mHealth apps, payers and providers began to take notice. In late 2019, Express Scripts unveiled one of the first digital health formularies, giving members of the pharmacy benefit management organization a guide to products the company tested and approved.

“Participating health plans and employers can increase patients’ access to emerging products and technologies simply and affordably, and can rest easier with the knowledge that these new tools have been reviewed by a team of experts who will ensure the products work, provide a user-friendly experience and are worth the investment,” company officials announced. “People who use a program on the Digital Health Formulary also will receive support from Express Scripts specialist pharmacists to ensure appropriate use of the technology.”

COVID-19 may have tossed everything telehealth-related into a blender and thrown it against the wall, but it also gave providers new insight into the value of virtual services.

At Banner Health, Johnson says the pandemic taught health system administrators the value of mixing virtual and in-person care, and of giving providers the tools they need to extend care to the home. Working on a platform developed by Xealth, the health system has created a governance strategy that will curate selected digital health products for its providers. The first curated service is Babyscripts, with more to come shortly.

Johnson says the platform will also facilitate RPM programs, particularly as Banner Health looks to push care management into the home for selected populations, such as patients discharged from the hospital after surgery or those with chronic conditions. The more opportunities to connect with patients, the more chances to boost care and affect outcomes.

“We’re looking to scale our digital therapeutic strategy to align with our clinical strategies,” he points out. Doctors “need something that not only ties into their workflow but gives them connectivity with the patient. And the patients want that type of engagement.”

Johnson sees the platform evolving as more apps, devices and services are vetted and as the health system looks for more RPM opportunities. Down the road, he envisions doctors prescribing bundled content packages, containing mHealth apps with access to education and resources, digital therapeutics for remote care and perhaps even a telehealth portal for on-demand access to care.

He says the platform needs to be monitored carefully, not only to measure clinical outcomes and create a formula for ROI, but to ensure that it fits into Banner Health’s hybrid healthcare strategy, one that value both virtual care and in-person services.

“The goal here is proper, appropriate utilization,” he points out. “We still have a lot to learn … but this will give us a better way to connect.”