Comagine Health Press Releases

New leadership team poised to position industry leader for future success

SALT LAKE CITY — Comagine Health, a leading national nonprofit health care consulting firm, named three new senior vice presidents to its senior executive team. Following the recent merger between Qualis Health and HealthInsight, Marc Bennett, Comagine Health’s president and chief executive officer, recognized that a broader range of diverse expertise is needed at the executive level to achieve the organization’s mission and vision. This move supports Comagine Health’s commitment to enhance its service line offerings and deliver a heightened level of expertise to its clients.

“Comagine Health is committed to reimagining health care, together,” Bennett said. “In order to do this, we need the proficiency of visionary leaders. Our new senior vice presidents offer valuable perspectives, strategic leadership and many years of experience that will amplify our success. This combined with…

The Idaho Academy of Family Physicians Names Kelly McGrath 2019 Family Physician of the Year

BOISE, Idaho — Comagine Health’s medical director Kelly McGrath, M.D., was named as the 2019 Idaho Family Physician of the Year by the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians. A tribute to honor him took place at the organization’s 71st Annual Conference. Dr. McGrath was commended for his generous contributions to his profession, his ongoing dedication to his patients and his commitment to his community.

As Comagine Health’s medical director in Idaho, Dr. McGrath provides strategic leadership and clinical oversight for patient safety and quality improvement initiatives. His role as a senior clinical leader drives population health improvement projects across the care continuum in Idaho. Dr. McGrath’s career spans more than three decades at Clearwater Valley Hospital. He also serves as the chief medical officer of the multi-state accountable care organization Clearwater…

This designation allows NQIICs to bid on Task Orders over the next five years.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services selected Comagine Health as a Prime awardee of the Network of Quality Improvement and Innovation Contractor. As a Prime NQIIC awardee partnering with other Quality Improvement contractors under the new CMS Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract mechanism to support quality improvement efforts, each NQIIC may serve as:

• Quality Improvement Experts
• Facilitators/change agents for healthcare transformation by achieving bold aims at a high value
• Innovators of quality improvement

As a NQIIC awardee, Comagine Health has demonstrated healthcare quality improvement expertise. Services supported by some of the NQIIC awardees may include:

• Provide direct technical assistance in specific areas of healthcare…

Life-saving drug prevents overdose from various opioids

BOSTON — A new research study led by Boston Medical Center’s Injury Prevention Center and Grayken Center for Addiction will help combat the opioid epidemic by measuring pharmacists’ most effective methods for naloxone education and distribution. RESPOND TO PREVENT combines two pharmacy-specific educational interventions that have shown promise in reducing opioid-related harms, and this study will investigate the impact of the approach by deploying it at pharmacies across the country.

The RESPOND TO PREVENT training program will address both safe opioid and naloxone dispensing at the pharmacy-level to reduce opioid-related harms for all individuals, regardless of whether they are using illicit drugs or prescribed opioids for pain or opioid use disorder management. Naloxone can be administered by injection into a muscle or as a nasal spray (sold as the brand name Narcan™) to prevent overdose death from any…

Assessing health care performance using local claims data is part of a larger project to identify the effect of health systems on economic and clinical performance.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Comagine Health recently announced the release of a collaborative manuscript featured in The American Journal of Managed Care in May 2019. The manuscript, “Producing Comparable Cost and Quality Results from All-Payers Claims Databases,” was authored by the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement (NRHI), Center for Improving Value in Health Care (CIVHC), Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP) and Comagine Health (formerly HealthInsight) in Oregon and Utah. The study demonstrates the feasibility of assessing health care performance within and across states using rich data sources and is part of a larger project to identify the effect of health systems on economic and clinical performance.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to work closely with our Regional Health…

Two organizations dedicated to improving health care merge under Comagine Health name

A combined, 500-person, national nonprofit health care consulting firm has been created from the merger of two industry leaders. Qualis Health and HealthInsight are now Comagine Health.

Comagine Health collaboratively reimagines health care with stakeholders through quality improvement, care management, and data analytics initiatives and services. Said Marc Bennett, president and CEO of Comagine Health, “The combination of Qualis Health and HealthInsight has created a trusted powerhouse in the fields of quality improvement, data analytics and care management. Our commitment to a shared mission ensures our clients and stakeholders receive services that truly improve the state of health care and health in the communities we serve.”

Comagine Health works within communities to solve the most challenging problems in health care. Services include practice transformation…

Advocate for improved health care delivery through information technology brings extensive experience to leadership role

SEATTLE — Qualis Health and HealthInsight, national leaders in creating a healthier health care system, today announced that Jason Owens has joined the company as chief information officer. Mr. Owens has more than 30 years of information technology management experience. For the past 15 years, Mr. Owens has worked exclusively in health care IT, aligning his passions for technology and high-quality health care delivery. As a health care technology leader, Mr. Owens has led innovative IT solutions and strategies to reduce costs and increase efficiencies. He is an active advocate for the use of technology to improve health care delivery.

Mr. Owens has lobbied at the state level to improve legislation to provide high quality and cost-efficient health care and information technology interoperability. Additionally, Mr. Owens currently serves on the…

”Compare Your Care” Website Enables Consumers to Compare Primary Care Practices’ Cost and Quality Scores

Portland, Ore. — HealthInsight has released Oregon’s first public reporting of relative cost data for primary care practices statewide. The public now has free access to primary care practice cost rankings on the Compare Your Care website, which also reports quality of care rankings.

Cost and quality reporting helps consumers choose high value care that is effective and delivered at a reasonable cost. The reporting provided through Compare Your Care allows consumers to see which primary care practices provide high quality care and the relative (lower than average, average, or higher than average) cost of that care. The Compare Your Care comprehensive tool is useful for providers who give care, patients who receive care and those who pay for health…

Former chief medical officer for Washington State Health Care Authority brings extensive health care transformation experience

SEATTLE — Qualis Health, one of the nation’s leading population health management organizations, today announced that Dan Lessler, M.D., M.H.A., has joined the company as Physician Executive for Community Engagement and Leadership. Dr. Lessler brings extensive experience in health care policy and systems change to Qualis Health.

As chief medical officer for the Washington State Health Care Authority, Dr. Lessler led successful statewide efforts to reduce unnecessary emergency room visits, address the opioid public health crisis, and create innovative value-based purchasing strategies. He also helped lead the integration of physical and behavioral health for managed care clients while ensuring a strong focus on community engagement and performance measurement as the state moved to a whole-person approach to health care. He is a…

Five-year contract award to provide continuing utilization management services and new quality improvement activities for Medicaid participants

WASHINGTON — Qualis Health has signed a contract renewal with the District of Columbia Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF). Under the contract, Qualis Health will continue its partnership with the DHCF to improve health outcomes for District residents by ensuring access to comprehensive, cost-effective and quality health care services.

Since 2014, Qualis Health has worked closely with DHCF to provide utilization management for the District’s more than 67,000 fee-for-service Medicaid Program participants. Qualis Health will continue to conduct patient care reviews for a variety of health care services.

New services under this contract include the development of nursing home quality management, quality of care monitoring and evaluation, the establishment of a nursing home quality improvement collaborative…