How ixlayer & NCQA Summit Attendees Can Innovate Together to Advance Health Screenings

At ixlayer, we work to make healthcare more accessible and equitable for all, a mission that aligns with the work of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). That’s why ixlayer is proud to be a bronze sponsor at the NCQA Health Innovation Summit, October 31 to November 3.. The  event functions as the center of gravity for quality-minded stakeholders in healthcare. The NCQA Summit will facilitate thought leadership on themes of innovative care delivery, the use of data and digital, breakthrough innovation, resiliency and recovery, NCQA programs and research, and equitable healthcare. 

At the Health Innovation Summit we look forward to sharing our strategy for helping health plans improve health outcomes, address gaps in care and improve performance against quality measures. We have solutions for impacting indirect measures and addressing social determinants of health that we will be sharing as well. Our team is eager to hear from the Summit’s thought-provoking speakers, learn from their esteemed education sessions and collaborate with other healthcare innovators.

For those who may not have the opportunity to attend the NCQA Summit, here’s a preview into how your health plan can address multiple measures in a single visit, a topic that is sure to drive collaboration at the event. To start, ixlayer partners with you to understand your program objectives. Our data team works closely with your team to identify the right members. Taking a patient centric approach, our experts craft engagement initiatives designed to drive action among your member population. We take an omni channel approach to member engagement and work with your team to provide a comprehensive and meaningful communication package based on industry best practices. After all, being member centric means meeting people where they are. 

With ixlayer’s platform, you can choose the sample collection modality for your members. Or you can give your members the option to decide the format they prefer for sample collection. Options include an at-home self-collection kit mailed to the member’s home, at-home sample collection assisted by a trained clinician, or the ability for the member to visit a nearby patient service center. Members appreciate the opportunity to complete the sample collection in the privacy and comfort of their own homes. The self-collection kits come with easy to follow instructions and kits can be mailed to the lab via pre-paid envelopes. We’ve found that offering multiple collection formats not only meets the member where they are (literally), but provides members with the convenience they need to take action. 

For certain programs and members, the at-home assisted collection completed by a specially trained clinician is the most successful option for addressing gaps in care. There are many advantages to this format in particular. Once an appointment is scheduled for an in-home service, our clinicians evaluate the member on a holistic level. This strategy is unique because members with diabetes, for example, can now be evaluated for more than their Hemoglobin A1C levels. Trained clinicians can record a member’s blood pressure, provide qualifying members with a screening kit for Colorectal Cancer, Kidney Health Evaluation or Microalbumin. The clinician can also screen for diabetic retinopathy with an eye exam performed in the member’s home. When members are proactive with their care and are provided with the tools and data required to make healthy choices, this can help them avoid visits to the emergency room and even acute hospitalizations. Offering in-home evaluations and screenings can also improve member satisfaction.

Social determinants of health (SDoH) can also be better addressed with an in-home visit provided by a clinician from the ixlayer network, operating on behalf of your health plan. While in the home for a scheduled screening, our trained clinicians can evaluate and survey the member for housing, food and transportation insecurities. Responses can be logged for follow up in ixlayer’s admin portal.

In addition to the convenience of at-home health testing for your members, your health plan also has the option to provide members with their results. Your members can view their results and where they fall within a reference range, additional information about what their results mean, and can even receive a telehealth follow-up when appropriate. You can also choose to share results with the member’s physician on file. 

As the program administrator, your health plan can see individual and aggregate results and track how many members are engaging with your program in the online admin portal. Visibility into program performance enables you to easily create additional health testing programs within the same platform, addressing more gaps in care.

NCQA and ixlayer have a shared mission to improve health outcomes at scale. We’ve found that the best way to accomplish this is by meeting members where they are, often in their own homes with trained clinicians and single or multiple appropriate preventive screenings that drive action. By offering health plans a turnkey, white labeled solution to drive member engagement, we help you provide high-quality health care that enables members to live healthier and happier lives.

Are you attending The NCQA Health Innovation Summit? If so, we hope to connect with you at the event, share our best practices and learn from your experiences.