ANN ARBOR — The Altarum Institute, a nonprofit supplying research and consulting to the healthcare industry, Tuesday announced that it had acquired another nonprofit, the Connecticut-based Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute (HCI3).
Over the past 15 years, HCI3 has developed some of the most respected alternative payment models in the United States, including its Bridges To Excellence and Prometheus Payment programs. It currently supports price and quality transparency efforts in a number of states, as well as efforts by New York to move to value-based payment. In addition, it supports efforts of major national and regional health plans.
HCI3’s 18 employees will become Altarum employees, many working remotely from their homes across the country.
“Over the past several years, we have shown that states can significantly improve the quality and affordability of health care,” said Lincoln Smith, Altarum’s President and CEO. “As the new administration takes office, it’s pretty clear that the federal government will actively support further local efforts to stimulate greater value for health care dollars spent. Combining HCI3’s expertise with the rest of Altarum gives us the opportunity to support state efforts everywhere in the country and make a difference in the lives of millions of Americans.”
Altarum officials said they started the merger talks in July because they were interested in increasing the organization’s capabilities around value-based payments.
As Altarum’s new Center for Payment Innovation, HCI3 will continue its important work in developing better incentives for the supply and demand of health care services, expand its product offerings within the Prometheus Analytics suite, and maintain the publication of its report cards on price and quality transparency.
“Our opportunities for positively impacting the industry are vastly expanded by becoming a part of Altarum,” said François de Brantes, HCI3’s former Executive Director and now Vice-President and Director of the Altarum Center for Payment Innovation. “What we could only dream of can now become a reality, and the entire HCI3 team is excited and energized to join Altarum.”
More at www.altarum.org.