Netsmart, Cantex team up for smarter referrals process

Netsmart and Cantex Continuing Care Network today announced a new strategic partnership to deploy an innovative “smart referral” management solution. The new solution connects post-acute organizations to referring sources electronically, and streamlines and facilitates the organization’s acceptance or rejection process. Netsmart is the largest post-acute healthcare technology provider.

As post-acute organizations move to take on risk-based contracts and participate in value-based care programs in a highly competitive market, it is vital for organizations to be able to process and respond to referrals quickly, reliably and consistently. Many post-acute organizations currently manage intake workflows in a client relationship management (CRM) solution, separate and apart from clinical documentation systems.

“As organizations are moving toward unified, streamlined processes across their lines of operation and care settings, there is a growing need for a solution that will receive referrals, manage the intake workflows and provide consistent and reliable operational, financial and performance reporting,” said Netsmart CEO Mike Valentine. “Our smart referral functionality provides comprehensive analytics and dashboards to help post-acute organizations gauge referral sources, patient risk, program performance and staff productivity, ultimately leading to more integrated and efficient transitions of care.”

Unlike a CRM, the Netsmart Referral Manager solution enables secure, electronic communication between a post-acute organization and the acute care organization, and eliminates the need for redundant data entry, saving time and resources. Referral receipt acknowledgement, as well as accepting or rejecting decisions, can be communicated back to the acute facility. Additionally, by using secure messaging tools embedded in the solution, post-acute care intake teams can communicate securely with external providers to collaborate on the most appropriate care setting for the patient. This longitudinal process will also provide organizations with a clear understanding of the revenue received compared to the cost of the care delivered.

“As we expand our relationships with established providers and emerging alternate payment models, Cantex must have the ability to effectively support the patient’s entire post-acute journey of care from Day 1 and through the individual’s successful transitions back into the community,” said Cantex CEO Robin Underhill. “The Netsmart Referral Management solution will provide a strategic advantage in this highly competitive environment by enabling us to quickly and effectively communicate with our referral partners, while seamlessly and efficiently integrating into our existing workflow.”

The referral management system taps into the powerful Netsmart network, with more than 25,000 organizations and 560,000 providers across all 50 states. There are more than 1 million connections on the network, with more than 1,300 lab orders and 10 million clinical transactions per year. Netsmart is also a founding member of Carequality, a common interoperability framework that enables information exchange between and among health data sharing networks. Netsmart clients are live and using the Carequality network to securely and seamlessly share information between care providers to ensure that they have access to data that enables whole-person care.

“Partnering with our clients allows us to provide an integrated care platform aligned to meet their current and future needs, focusing on our goal of integration across care settings,” said Valentine. “Collaboration with organizations will be critical as the healthcare ecosystem moves to pay-for-quality, pay-for performance and risk-based payment models. We have effectively built a bridge to facilitate the communication between community-based providers and health systems. Three years from now it will be more like a super highway – we are thrilled with this next big step in our journey.”

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