PDS Health Technologies and University of the Pacific are spearheading the next phase of medical-dental integration through a partnership that will further advance collaboration in the healthcare field.
The University of the Pacific will become the first dental school in the U.S. to implement PDS Health’s dental-optimized instance of Epic across medical, dental and ambulatory surgery center settings. This collaboration will include the addition of Epic at the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in San Francisco.
PDS Health Technologies, a subsidiary of PDS Health that provides technology support to external organizations, will also provide RCM services to help the university align its clinical and operational performance.
Preston Raulerson, president of PDS Health Technologies, said the company was interested in collaborating with the University of Pacific on this deployment due to the school’s previous healthcare integration efforts, including the opening of an integrated clinic last year.
Elisa Chávez, DDS, interim dean of the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry, said the school was looking for additional opportunities to integrate healthcare and was impressed by PDS Health’s expertise in this area.
“We have patients who are living longer, living with chronic diseases and managing more medications, so it’s really to everyone’s benefit to have care that’s integrated,” Dr. Chávez said. “Electronic health records are a key part of that, and many of our partners in the Bay Area, other healthcare providers, are using Epic as well. So, it made sense to be on the same platform.”
Currently, treating patients involves several steps that can become more complex if their medical history is unknown. Using PDS Health’s instance of Epic across healthcare spaces will strengthen collaboration and education for providers while enhancing patient care.
“This really will be novel and valuable to have this breadth of services available on a dental campus, and it will allow us to see a broad spectrum of patients with various health needs,” Dr. Chávez said. “We have an opportunity to collaborate right on our campus with other healthcare professionals, as well as with partners who are outside the building, in a more efficient way. Using Epic in this environment will greatly enhance the patient care and education we can provide, right on our own campus.”
Mr. Raulerson added that handling RCM services removes some of the workload on the university, allowing them to focus on other investments and opportunities. It also increases transparency for patients and efficiency for payers, creating a win-win situation for all parties involved in the treatment process.
“The patient has better transparency. The clinician is being appropriately reimbursed for the value they’re creating for that patient’s wellness, and we’re spending less time, less energy, less money doing that on the backend for something that is not part of care. [Payers] have a more efficient process because we’re giving them what they expect from us, without the denial and the kickback and the back and forth,” he told Becker’s. “For organizations that don’t have the level of investment that PDS has had to put into the revenue cycle, it’s hard for [them] to get to that level of efficiency, sophistication and smoothness.”
PDS Health Technologies is continuing to look for opportunities to scale their Epic platform and fill gaps within the healthcare space. This includes identifying other dental schools and health systems that are already using Epic but are looking for ways to optimize performance and enhance patient care further.
Dr. Chávez told Becker’s that EHRs are a key part of advancing medical-dental integration. Looking ahead, she said further progress can be made by aligning medical and dental insurers.
“[We need to look] at ways medicine and dentistry can learn from each other on that front so that people have access to the care they need,” she said. “Very often, people may have medical insurance of some kind, but they may be lacking dental insurance, and that’s especially true among certain populations, such as older adults. For those populations that are lacking dental insurance, it makes it hard to have integrated care because often they just can’t access the services. So anytime we have an opportunity to improve the resources people have to seek care, I think that will help drive that integration as well.”
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