Lifesprk and North Memorial Health Partner to Deliver Value-Based Population Health Solution System Wide

Lifesprk, leader in whole person senior services, and North Memorial Health, a multi-hospital regional health system serving the Twin Cities, have partnered to deploy the first-of-its kind client-centered alternative delivery system for whole person senior services. This emerging model is creating significant proactive investments to build trust with North Memorial Health’s senior population and deliver ‘triple aim.’

“Healthcare is sick, and the system is broken, especially for the senior population who are substantially under-and over-served. We have to create systems that forge pathways for people to live better with a focus on wellness, not sickness,” said Joel Theisen, BSN, CEO of Lifesprk. “While most health systems and payors struggle to move beyond volume-based models, this partnership with North Memorial Health fully integrates the entire continuum through a tech-enabled high-performance network that redesigns and redefines healthcare.”

Focused heavily on keeping people well in the community, this alternative delivery system is backed by technology that looks at a senior’s whole life, including all phases of their health care journey – tracking hospitalizations, improvements in overall wellness, and addressing social determinants of health – to serve them intelligently with community-based initiatives. “This system focuses on a person’s agenda, not the health system or payor’s agenda, to keep people well where they live and play,” added Theisen. “This is especially critical for the high-risk senior populations and nurturing the proactive senior.”
Lifesprk has been developing its architecture, proprietary alternative delivery system, and its core competencies around improving a person’s life experience since 2004. “We know isolation is fatal,” explained Theisen. “To deliver a more tightly integrated customer experience, we have to thread the care continuum together and partner to truly improve long-term outcomes and succeed in population health/value-based payment models.”

According to Dr. J. Kevin Croston, CEO of North Memorial Health, the 65+ age group is expected to nearly double by 2030 causing a sharp increase in the demand for senior healthcare services. “As a health system leader, we wanted to creatively address the growing senior population and think differently about what is possible for our senior customers and their families to help them achieve better health and lower costs,” explained Croston. “Proven outcomes, technology, and how our partnership has evolved over the years were motivating factors when it came to partnering with Lifesprk to lead these efforts.”

This client-centered, fully integrated delivery system is an “alternative” to the existing silos of delivery in the traditional healthcare system. Built around an individual’s eco-system, the Life Experience Alternative Delivery System (LEADS) integrates whole person in-home primary care with ongoing life care support to give seniors and their families a comprehensive, seamless system of care and guidance to empower seniors to achieve their best health – a ‘sparked life’ – wherever they call home. It is designed to improve outcomes and experiences while reducing costs, especially for those at highest risk.
“Already this partnership is showing impressive results. With the national Medicare average for a 30-day hospital readmission rate at 17%, initial results from LEADS have lowered that rate by more than half for the clients we are serving within North Memorial Health,” shared Theisen. “As a company, Lifesprk has been able to lower hospitalizations by 47% and ER visits by 51% for the clients we served in 2018. Outcomes and data are critical to proving the efficacy of our model.”

Croston added there is a huge opportunity right now to build better pathways for seniors to make healthcare healthier. “Partnering allows us the opportunity to offer our customers the best care that meets their needs,” said Croston.

Theisen said the fee-for-service healthcare compensation model, based on vertical siloes of services, is not a viable system in the long-term. “Many seniors experience a roller coaster of healthcare crises leading to a life of acute reactive care and dependence,” said Theisen. “Health systems have to look beyond a disease-centric management system that leads to fragmented care that is expensive and yields poor outcomes to community-based initiatives that manage seniors’ wellness and address social determinants of health. Both of us (Lifesprk and North Memorial Health) share this vision and this partnership is really about providing a world-class experience that has never been done before,” said Theisen.

As part of the overall senior strategy, over the past year, Lifesprk and North Memorial Health have worked together to transition North Memorial Health’s TotalCare for Seniors primary care to Lifesprk Health whole person primary care, assumed risk for managing nearly 6,000 Twin City seniors who have enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan to decrease health care spend and increase engagement and health outcomes, and integrated services across the North Memorial Health system including primary/specialty care, ED and hospital, and community paramedics program.

Contact

Katy Sullivan
North Memorial Health
763-581-2402
Katy.Sullivan@NorthMemorial.com

Meaghan Puglisi
Lifesprk
952-873-7382
mpuglisi@lifesprk.com

About North Memorial Health

At North Memorial Health, we are on a mission to change healthcare. We’re delivering unmatched customer service and empowering our customers throughout the Twin Cities to achieve their best health. North Memorial Health offers a complete spectrum of primary care and specialty services to meet customer’s unique healthcare needs. North Memorial Health provides access to the high-quality, low-cost care throughout the Twin Cities through its specialty and primary care clinics, home care offering, medical transportation services and two hospitals – North Memorial Health Hospital and Maple Grove Hospital – and 900+ doctors and 5,000+ team members that are dedicated to delivering a more connected experience for our customers.

About Lifesprk

Based in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, Lifesprk’s Life Experience Alternative Delivery System (LEADS) is a proprietary, technology-enabled delivery system focused on the whole person that improves client experience and quality outcomes, lowering the total cost of care and building life-long affinity. Trusting relationships are established through whole-person primary care, life management, engagement, and navigation services working within a high-performance community network. Its technology stack combines EMR, SDoH, first- and third-party data to enable predictive analytics for scalable individualized solutions for all stakeholders. The first complete payor-agnostic community-based delivery system, LEADS can be applied to a full continuum of care settings and reimbursement models, putting Lifesprk at the forefront of value-based care initiatives. With an award-winning culture committed to sparking lives, Lifesprk has a proven track record of consistent growth with solid financials and outcomes as well as experience scaling and integrating with a wide range of partners. Visit Lifesprk.com.