MILWAUKEE –  Humana is offering financial incentives to 100 emergency-room physicians from three ER groups to access health data through the Wisconsin Health Information Exchange, or WHIE, to treat Humana members.

Humana and WHIE expect to see improved coordination of care and a decrease in cost as a result of the 12-month pilot, said Albert Tzeel, MD, market medical officer  -  Great Lakes Region, Humana Health Plans of Wisconsin and Michigan.

Humana expects to see decreases in cost per visit, reduction in the redundancy of tests, especially for chronic issues, and more coordination of care between the emergency room physician and other clinicians or specialists who have treated the patient, he said.

In the Milwaukee area alone, Humana spends several millions of dollars annually on ER visits, Tzeel said. "It's a good start if we get a little savings," he said.

While elimination of unnecessary or redundant tests will produce immediate savings, Tzeel said that coordination of care is akin to "compounded interest."

Humana will subsidize the fee to access WHIE's platform  -  Microsoft's Amalga  -  and it will provide a net incentive to physicians to incorporate the new workflow process.

Thirteen hospitals in the Milwaukee area, representing four IDNs, are contributing data, with the fourteenth hospital coming on board in March, said Kim Pemble, WHIE executive director.

Despite the data coming from multiple systems and interfaces, Amalga is able to match patients across the community and provide a consistent view of them across the different systems, Pemble said. "The goal is to make health information exchange as simple as possible," he said.

WHIE reached out to the major payers in the area, and Humana "demonstrated taking a lead role in the first step to long-term business sustainability," said Pemble.

Steve Shihadeh, general manager of sales, marketing and partners for Microsoft Health Solutions Group, noted that when health information exchanges deliver the benefits payers step up.

Humana has every reason to believe the pilot will be a success and will consider expanding the program to its populations, Tzeel said. "This benefits the community, so we want our competitors to join us," he said.