Highmark unveils Alloyed Works in portfolio consolidation

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Highmark Health has introduced Alloyed Works, which will unite its diversified business offerings in a single portfolio.

The Alloyed Works portfolio includes the capabilities of several Highmark companies, including:

• United Concordia Dental, a national dental solutions partner with more than 9.5 million members and one of the nation's largest dentist networks.
• Helion, a post-acute care company that cultivates high-performance networks, and has achieved more than $100 million in medical cost savings through reduced readmissions and improved health outcomes.
• enGen, a technology organization that provides robust end-to-end business processes, expert knowledge and integrated cloud-based platforms to Blue Cross Blue Shield health plans.

The portfolio also includes HM Insurance Group, a stop-loss company with more than 1,200 clients that has saved self-funded employers nearly $70 million from cost containment practices, and HealthNow Administrative Services, a growing third-party administrator business that helps self-insured employers control the health plan and products they offer their employees, process claims and lower costs.

WHAT'S THE IMPACT?

According to Highmark, Alloyed Works delivers solutions "that streamline benefits management and create new revenue streams, proactively engage patients to prevent and better manage complex health conditions, and connect health organizations with innovative partners, products and technologies."

Through Alloyed Works, Highmark Health said it will also offer health organization customers the expertise gleaned from successfully increasing prescription drug access while managing costs, as well as analytical, customer-service and policy guidance.

Highmark Health has morphed from a traditional health insurer with around $2.3 billion in yearly revenue and one million members in the mid-1990s, to a $26 billion enterprise with around seven million health insurance members today – due in part to the solutions aligned under the Alloyed Works name, the company said.

"Our Diversified Business solutions and capabilities in government programs and pharmacy drive transformation and growth for Highmark Health as well as forward-thinking health organizations across the U.S.," said Deb Rice-Johnson, CEO of Diversified Businesses for Highmark and chief growth officer. "Health companies face headwinds in a drastically changing industry from shifting consumer preferences, new competitors and technological revolution. Companies that succeed over the long run, like Highmark Health, adapt to changing times."

THE LARGER TREND

Last spring, in the wake of a "severe illness season," Highmark Health said it was teaming with Kinsa to deploy its real-time illness insights and season forecasts to predict healthcare utilization, recognize staffing needs and plan emergency department and ICU bed capacity when infectious diseases like COVID-19 and influenza spike.

Kinsa is an insights-solutions business using data and advanced analytics to track and forecast the spread of illness and predict corresponding demand for healthcare products and services.

Highmark entered into another partnership in 2022, when it joined Allegheny Health Network in collaborating with Cedar to improve the patient's financial journey in a program that went live in October.

The model brings together the explanation of benefits with the hospital bill for a single source of truth. In addition, the program includes health savings account balances to help remove fragmentation in billing. This is the first time Cedar is integrating HSA balances.

ON THE RECORD

"By aligning the talents and expertise of our diversified organizations under Alloyed Works, we are providing our health organization customers with a clear vision for how they too can adapt, grow their business and create remarkable experiences for the members they serve in collaboration with Highmark Health," said Rice-Johnson.
 

Jeff Lagasse is editor of Healthcare Finance News.
Email: jlagasse@himss.org
Healthcare Finance News is a HIMSS Media publication.