LPCA Partners with Certintell to Accelerate Telehealth Adoption for Louisiana Community Health Centers

NEW ORLEANS and DES MOINES, Iowa, Jan. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Louisiana Primary Care Association (LPCA) has chosen Certintell Telehealth as the trusted vendor to bring software, infrastructure and training to the 38 federally funded Community Health Center organizations across Louisiana. These organizations operate over 270 individual sites and serve over 444,000 patients a year. "The LPCA will expand efforts from previous rural community initiatives to make sure that every patient, especially in rural areas where health resources are very limited, has access to high quality and affordable health care," said LPCA's Health Information Technology Project Manager, Bridgette Bienville, MD, MPH. Through this partnership, these Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) will have the opportunity to use Certintell's expertise to implement cloud-based telehealth services in order to close care gaps and provide additional revenue opportunities for community health centers.

"Supporting efforts to improve the overall health for our patients is key to our partnership with Certintell. With a foundation of telehealth, our 38 FQHCs will have the ability to connect with providers throughout the state to provide coordinated care to patients. With the addition of RPM, we will be able to provide proactive care and patients will appreciate the ongoing support through the care management services," said Christopher Obafunwa, Director of Health Information Technology (HIT) at LPCA. "We extensively reviewed the options and Certintell is a true leader in the FQHC space when it comes to the expertise of telehealth, RPM and care management services."

In Louisiana, 1.2 million individuals have 2 or more chronic conditions. The financial burden this places Louisiana's health care infrastructure is significant. From 2016-2030, treatment for chronic diseases in Louisiana is expected to cost $612 billion, amounting to around $8,600 per resident.¹ RPM has been shown to dramatically improve chronic disease management while decreasing health care costs. Using RPM and telehealth also result in higher patient engagement and improved health, leading to a 38% decrease in patient admissions and a 25% decrease in readmissions.²

"By combining care management services and RPM the LPCA will have the ability to accelerate improved health outcomes while lowering costs for their FQHCs, as well as provide key population health metrics that will be important as health care shifts to a value-based system," Benjamin Lefever, Founder and CEO of Certintell Telehealth stated. "The LPCA is very forward-thinking and by proving that the combination of these efforts improves patient outcomes, they will be able to share the playbook with all national Primary Care Associations in order to help them improve the health and lives of their constituencies."

Supporting the LPCA to improve patient health throughout Louisiana is at the core of this partnership, and as Jamie Schlottman, CEO & Plan President of Louisiana Healthcare Connections, recently stated, "We consider the Louisiana Primary Care Association and the community health centers it represents to be the leading organization in improving whole health in our state." The team at Certintell couldn't agree more, planning on positively affecting LPCA's patient population for years to come through their ongoing partnership.

¹ Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease. "What Is The Impact Of Chronic Disease On Louisiana?" 2015. PDF file.

² Cohen, Jessica Kim. "KLAS: Remote patient monitoring reduces admissions, readmissions, ER visits. " 3 Oct. 2018, www.beckershospitalreview.com/telehealth/klas-remote-patient-monitoring-reduces-admissions-readmissions-er-visits.html.

About Certintell Telehealth
Founded in 2014, Certintell is a rapidly growing care management company that enables safety-net providers to make a lasting impact on the health of underserved patients through a spectrum of comprehensive health IT solutions, including telehealth, to achieve the goals of the health care Quadruple Aim.

About Louisiana Primary Care Association (LPCA)
Established in 1982 as a non-profit organization, the Louisiana Primary Care Association, Inc. (LPCA) promotes accessible, affordable, quality primary healthcare services for the uninsured and medically underserved populations in Louisiana. It is a membership organization of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and supporters committed to the goal of achieving health care access for all.

SOURCE Certintell Inc.