The healthcare industry has seen an upswing in merger and acquisition activity in the past year. With the recent announcement that we have agreed to be acquired by Aetna, Medicity becomes a participant in this trend.

Why this burst of consolidation throughout the industry? Because federal reimbursement regulations and reform mandates are driving the need for convergence. Convergence is the concept of merging financial and clinical information to give healthcare providers a single, coherent view of a patient’s health. This is critical for addressing reimbursement reform and supporting emerging care-delivery models like accountable care organizations (ACO) and patient-centered medical homes (PCMH).

Organizations like ACOs must actively oversee and coordinate best practices among participating providers to improve clinical outcomes while rewarding providers for preventative care and cost-effectiveness. Significantly, ACOs will administer payment distribution and reimbursement among participating entities, requiring oversight of both financial and clinical information.

Combining Medicity and Aetna’s strengths – including other Aetna-owned technology products and businesses, such as ActiveHealth Management™ clinical decision support – will create a complete infrastructure for providers to operate as an ACO or PCMH. The combined offering will provide such benefits as a connected healthcare platform, clinical decision support, and at-risk contracting and management solutions.

With convergence, health information remains private and protected. Rest assured that clinical data gathered and exchanged using Medicity technology belongs to its customers and remains theirs alone. Built on the foundation of federal privacy laws, Medicity’s  privacy policy includes restrictions for secondary use of data and a patient-consent framework and transparent licensing agreement that clearly delineate data ownership. These policies will not change as a result of our joining Aetna.

The Medicity/Aetna relationship represents convergence in action – creating a secure foundation for health information exchange to power the infrastructure for the future of patient-focused health management.