Baptist Memorial Health Care’s Brain & Spine Network Center of Excellence is expanding its collaboration with Cedar Gate Technologies (Cedar Gate), a leading value-based care performance management technology company.

The Brain & Spine Network Center of Excellence is a collaboration between Baptist and Semmes Murphey Clinic designed to provide a cost-saving and high-quality benefit for employees who suffer from back and neck pain and other neurological conditions. First offered to Baptist’s employees and a select number of businesses, this Center of Excellence has proven to significantly reduce out-of-pocket costs by providing proven solutions and leveraging personalized care through assigned nurse navigators who assist in diagnosis, treatment, therapies, interventional pain management and, if required, surgical care and recovery. Initial outcomes for the center show that patients returned to work 14% more quickly than the national average, and 90% of patients reported satisfaction with their care.

“We’re excited to offer our comprehensive Brain & Spine Network Center of Excellence to a wider base of employers and patients,” said Kim Hallum-Stewart, system administrator of neurosciences for Baptist Memorial Health Care. “Cedar Gate’s platform allows us to bring our vision to self-insured employers by providing value-based payment solutions, streamlined data integration and operational analytics, which serve as a foundation for us to scale and offer excellence in care to employers across our region.”

Baptist recently broadened the use of Cedar Gates’s platform from a singular specialized surgical specialty implementation to a multifaceted application to encompass the expanded vision for the Center of Excellence.

“Semmes-Murphey has a passion for saving lives, improving quality of life and advancing the field of neurosurgery,” said John Lewis, Semmes Murphey CEO. “Cedar Gates’s platform has given us the tools to integrate business operations, strengthen our partnership with Baptist and offer more employers the opportunity to participate in the Brain & Spine Network Center of Excellence.”

Cedar Gate’s payment technology enables the Brain & Spine Network to manage prospective bundled payment programs with automatic conversion of fee-for-service claims into a single, bundled claim.

“Value-based care is becoming increasingly recognized as the future of health care delivery and reimbursement in the U.S.,” said Cedar Gate CEO David Snow. “We are pleased these solutions helped meet Baptist’s needs and allow for continued success.”

The Brain & Spine Network Center of Excellence is focused on providing high-quality, patient-centered neurological care, emphasizing value for patients and employers. Baptist’s Centers of Excellence measure outcomes and compare results with programs across the country. The Brain & Spine Network clinical team consistently achieves top rankings among its peers. Employers can choose from Baptist’s service offerings to determine what will work best for their employee population. Baptist’s Brain & Spine Network has a robust offering of services and can tailor those services to meet an employer’s specific needs.

Cedar Gate enables payers, providers, employers, and service administrators to excel at value-based care. Our unified technology and services platform enhances and automates data management activities to deliver employer and provider analytics, care management, and payment technology necessary to pursue every payment model and optimize performance in all lines of business. From primary care attribution, to bundled payments, to capitation, our platform is designed to improve clinical, financial, and operational outcomes for all.

Based in Greenwich, CT, Cedar Gate is private equity backed by GTCR, a leading Chicago-based private equity firm, Ascension Ventures, a strategic healthcare venture firm, and Cobalt Ventures, the investment subsidiary of BCBS of Kansas City. To learn more, visit www.cedargate.com

The Baptist system comprises 22 affiliate hospitals in West Tennessee, North and Central Mississippi and East Arkansas; more than 5,400 affiliated physicians; Baptist Medical Group, a multispecialty physician group with more than 800 providers; home, hospice and psychiatric care; minor medical centers and clinics; a network of surgery, rehabilitation and other outpatient centers; and an education system highlighted by Baptist Health Sciences University (formerly Baptist College of Health Sciences).

Founded more than 100 years ago by Eustace Semmes, MD, and Francis Murphey, MD, Semmes Murphey Clinic has been a leader in the development of technology and procedures that improve the quality of care for patients with neurological and spine disorders. This continuing leadership has made the Semmes Murphey name instantly recognizable to physicians across the country and the world, many of whom refer their patients here for treatment.