WASHINGTON – America’s Health Insurance Plans has contracted with MedAssurant, Inc., a Bowie, Md.-based data solutions provider, to provide data analytics services.

AHIP officials say the partnership will help the organization advance efforts in evidence-based medicine and increase its capabilities to translate data into meaningful conclusions that support more affordable and quality care for patients.

"AHIP is committed … to achieve the nation's goals of better healthcare and better use of our healthcare resources," said Charles Stellar, AHIP's executive vice president. "To do this will require a superior understanding of what works, and what works best, for individual patients based on data and evidence.”

Affordability and quality are familiar themes in the Obama' administration's efforts to implement healthcare reform.

"An ability to garner insight from these solutions for broader applications is critical to the large-scale improvement sought in today's environment,” said Keith Dunleavy, president and CEO of MedAssurant. “Data drives these analyses and the advanced solutions that can be informed by their findings. MedAssurant is very pleased to help inform AHIP's focus on evidence-based healthcare initiatives."

AHIP represents almost 1,300 companies providing health insurance to more than 200 million Americans. AHIP provides its members with medical, long-term care, disability income, dental, supplemental and stop-loss insurance and re-insurance to consumers, employers and public purchasers.