E-Consult: An Opportunity for Financial and Operational Innovation

Catalyst, a New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) publication, released a case study titled E-Consult Innovation: A Middle-Ground Model To Enhance Adoption and Improve Care. This study tested the efficacy of alternative operational and financial models for e-Consult. HealthPartners designed a vertically integrated system that engaged third-party payers and implemented an in-house method to compensate specialists and primary care providers for their e-consult work. After less than one year, more than 50% of the e-consults have been billed, and more than 60% of the requests from PCPs were addressed the same day