A Brief History of Tools

Basic Access Analysis

In the early days of managed healthcare, provider network adequacy was measured by simply matching the zip codes of members against zip codes of providers. If you had substantial overlap then you had adequate coverage, right? Not quite.

With the advent of desktop mapping technology in the late 80’s and early 90’s, zip code matching gave way to geographic network analysis with features such as maps and tabular reports calculating distances and levels of access with simple access standards such as two providers within ten miles. Later, compound access standards such as two primary care providers within ten miles, a specialist of any kind within fifteen miles and one hospital within twenty miles became the norm.

Manual Disruption Analysis

Just as access analysis was becoming commonplace in the industry and standards were being established to measure it, a new need was emerging — Disruption Analysis. Once a sense of geographic coverage was established through access analysis, attention turned to identifying which providers from an incumbent network were also in a prospective network. More importantly, the need arose to identify gaps in the network for those incumbent providers that were most heavily utilized by a particular membership.

Unfortunately, very little standardization has taken place over the years to automate or control the process of performing a disruption analysis. Furthermore, there is very little transparency into the processes used by carriers nationwide to respond to requests for disruption analysis – making it difficult, at best, for consultants and employers to compare and contrast results from multiple carriers.

Industry Needs Evolve

For some in the industry, the simple access and manual disruption analysis techniques above are still the methods used today. But for many, these old techniques have fallen behind the needs of the industry and have been replaced by custom requests and handcrafted spreadsheets. Due to the stagnation of legacy analysis tools in the industry, many consultants no longer request standard access analysis reports, but instead request customized spreadsheets of data, each one different and varying in complexity. The reality is that their needs evolved but the old tools failed to keep pace with those needs.

Leaping into the Future

Quest Analytics was founded in 2003 by partners John Weis and David Hill with the mission to breathe new life into the industry. The Quest Analytics Suite™ was born to provide a modern, updated software platform that meets the needs of all industry stakeholders with an interest in measuring healthcare provider networks.

Contact us today at contact@questanalytics.com or 920.739.4552 for more information, to schedule a free web demonstration or to find out how you can elevate your analytics abilities with the Quest Analytics Suite.

2003
Quest Analytics launched the Quality Analysis Module - a powerful new healthcare analytical tool designed to provide an apples-to-apples means of measuring the quality of healthcare networks in a manner similar to how the industry has measured access for years. Banding together with Health Grades, Inc., the industry-leading supplier of quality ratings information, the Quest Analytics Suite was established as the first and only software solution in the industry to provide a standardized way to measure and report quality outcomes on hospitals nationwide.

2004
Quest Analytics added the Network Data Module with robust sets of provider data aimed at helping measure and compare network quality.

2005

The release of the Access Analysis Module forever changes the landscape of the network access analysis market. Now there's another option available for "Geo" reporting that goes beyond simple access analysis to incorporate competitive analysis, access comparison and qualitative access analysis that factors quality into the equation.

2006
The Geocoder Module is released with nationwide street-level geocoding capabilities to maximize the accuracy of any access analysis.

2007
Patient safety data and process measures are added to the Quality Analysis Module while pre-packaged provider databases from Strenuus, a leading provider data collection company, are added to the Network Data Module.

2008
Quest Analytics continues to revolutionize the industry with the introduction of the Disruption Analysis Module - making it possible, for the first time, to measure access, quality and disruption all in one fully integrated product.

2009
Quest Analytics brings industry-standard Network Analysis to the Medicare Advantage space with customized features and data specifically geared to measure healthcare networks against the Network Adequacy requirements outlined by CMS.

2010
Quest Analytics builds on the overwhelming adoption of the Quest Analytics Suite among Medicare Advantage plans by launching a complete software module designed with their needs in mind - the Medicare Advantage Module. Quest also builds even more automation into the solution by adding Medicare Part-D Pharmacy reports as well.