Chris Deelsnyder of ACS: Latest technology solutions in Healthcare IT

Chris Deelsnyder is senior vice president and managing director of ACS’ Government Healthcare Solutions. With $20 billion in the federal stimulus package earmarked for healthcare IT, Deelsnyder weighs in on what projects he sees states funding this year.

What healthcare IT projects do you see states funding this year?

Chris Deelsnyder: Three areas come to mind. First, I expect a lot more attention paid to creating health information exchanges between states. Second, with the aging of America I think more states are going to focus on long-term care activity over the next three to four years. Third, I think there’s going to be more focus on what the ACS calls the population management approach.

How, if at all, can healthcare IT help fix our healthcare system?

Chris Deelsnyder: My sense is that federal dollars are going to come with a stipulation that states not just continue to pour money into programs but rather employ technologies that help identify necessary spend and, more importantly, that focus on improving ways to provide care.  For our part, we have focused on adding ancillary capabilities to our contracts and our platforms to address the population health management play, which is a front-end kind of analytics capability.

“It’s not about trying to push something through to them. The challenge is to identify the people in the states who are driven to innovation.”-Chris Deelsnyder

Chris Deelsnyder: An example would be “third party liability.” Medicaid is supposed to be the payer of last resort but because of the failure of how the healthcare systems have been laid out there’s really not been a convenient way of identifying when a patient has a commercial plan.  The TPL has really been a “pay and chase.” If you look at the condition of the states right now they don’t have the ability to have ten and tens of millions of dollars out there that need to be collected.  We have a unique capability that identifies if there is a commercial relationship that this individual has, then that claim gets routed to that commercial company. We would add that ancillary to our Medicaid and MMIS contracts.

Any other examples?

Chris Deelsnyder: Another example would be “smart prior authorization” — that’s at the point of sale. When a patient shows up at the pharmacist, the pharmacist can — with our technology — pull up that patient’s medical records and identify whether the patient has been filling their prescription.  If they’re not, then ultimately that will cost the state more in longer term health costs.  Technologies that allow for that type of intervention at the point of sale I think are going to continue to be important.

What is your prognosis on the rate of adoption by states?

Chris Deelsnyder: Because of state budget cuts, as well as demands for reform by the federal government on how states use money, I think the rate of adoption will be greater than it would have been. The other thing that has changed is increasingly the states have really some of the better minds when it comes to technology — Virginia’s former Secretary of Technology [and current federal CTO] Aneesh Chopra is a prime example. Increasingly we are dealing with people on the state level who are highly aware of how to implement new technologies.

What best practices help secure a high win rate on request for proposals?

Chris Deelsnyder: The down side to this business is that everything pretty much comes out in the form of an RFP; nine times out of 10 you know well in advance that it’s coming out. I say that’s a downside because it’s easy to just wait for the RFP. We don’t take that tact.  If our people haven’t been involved at least 18 months in advance of when we know something is going to come out — if we don’t have a relationship, if they don’t know us by name, if we haven’t had a chance to have white board sessions or publish a white paper and certainly if we haven’t been able to affect the RFP language itself — then our win rate drops by 50 percent. It’s that dramatic.

How do you begin positioning yourself 18 months out?

Chris Deelsnyder: We just go and tell our story.  We have, separate from our sales staff, a core business development organization of subject matter expertise who go out and make themselves visible at all of the major functions. They reach out and start to build those relationships. Another best practice is that we focus on benefit to the state. A mistake that sales organizations and companies make is they sell in the context of what benefits the vendor.

How many white board sessions might you have over an 18-month period?

Chris Deelsnyder: Dozens and dozens, we have those sessions on a monthly basis probably six to eight sessions with different states at any given time, where all levels of our organization are out with clients just brainstorming:  “Have you ever thought about this?” “Here is this technology and here’s how it’s being implemented.”  “Would you be interested in talking to this other state who has already done it?” The good thing is that states talk to each other. We’ve given joint talks with the state of Alabama, which has spurred other states to contact us.

Any last advice for healthcare IT providers wanting to work with states?

Chris Deelsnyder: You have to see people. You have to be out in front of them. More importantly, they have to want to see you. In any given state you may find yourself just brainstorming. It’s not about selling. It’s not about trying to push something through to them. The challenge is to identify the people in the states who are driven to innovation.

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Posted by Staff Writer on Monday, May 11th, 2009. Filed under Healthcare IT. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry