Analyze and organize healthcare datasets at ease with Springbuk, a leading-edge health analytics solution

We live in a data-driven world where analytics has become a significant part of almost every industry. Data accumulation is at an all-time high, and organizations are finding it challenging to manage the huge volumes efficiently. In healthcare, the situation is no different. Private practices, hospitals, insurers, and even employers have an enormous amount of data to sort through. Through data analytics, we can offer better patient care, resource utilization, and preventative wellness programs. Because of this, there is a significant shift happening in healthcare toward a more outcome and value-based payment approach. By analyzing the available data, we can discover effective practices to help cut costs and improve the population’s health.

There are various providers in the health analytics segment globally, but one that stands out from the rest is Springbuk. Unlike legacy data warehouses, at Springbuk, they simplify data-driven decision-making with an intuitive user experience, predictive modeling, and curated action steps that guide employers toward options that can reduce their costs and improve their employees’ health. By combining data analytics with data science, the Springbuk Health Intelligence platform utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help employers identify and predict employees at risk of certain diseases using a database of over 233 million unique claims. Today, Springbuk serves nearly 4,000 employers and 285 benefits advisors with data integration from over 350 health benefits plans and vendors. Since 2016, the Springbuk platform has helped employers identify $1.7+ billion in total savings opportunities for members with a chronic condition, $88 million in Avoidable ER Visits, and $82 million in drug savings that could be realized next year.

In conversation with Rod Reasen, CEO of Springbuk

Q. With companies delving into customer data to its very depths, maintaining privacy is next to impossible for the general public. Tell us about your data compliance and security measures to protect data.

Security is a top priority, from encryption to tightly controlled access and a completely isolated production infrastructure. To ensure data is handled in the safest, most secure standards, Springbuk is HITRUST CSF^® Certified, the highest standard of information protection certifications. Additionally, we maintain HIPAA compliance through a vastly changing market. We exceed the industry-standard best practices to take care of the data leveraged in our infrastructure.

Q. Health care costs have witnessed a sharp increase in price over the last few years. Employers may find this to be a costly affair, making financial planning extremely difficult. How does your solution help employers?

As healthcare costs continue to rise, we understand that employers bear a large portion of that burden. With so many outside factors, the ability to utilize advanced analytics to identify healthcare data insights is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Springbuk equips employers of all sizes with easily digestible and understandable actionable information and “next step” suggestions that lead directly to action, disease prevention, and mitigation. The Springbuk platform was built to educate every user about what is happening inside of their population. Provides the tools to build target population groups and analyze which plan participants contribute to healthcare utilization spend by condition, the scope of services, and care location. Springbuk was built with the employer in mind to help proactively identify individuals at risk of diseases before they develop. These include conditions such as diabetes, opioid abuse, thyroid disease, heart conditions, and more. Once the platform identifies at-risk individuals, it then presents employers with insights and curated action steps for appropriate treatment, disease management resources, and risk mitigation strategies to keep populations healthy. By offering more healthcare analytics and actionable insights, Springbuk gives employers the Health Intelligence they need to make better data-driven health plan decisions that are unique to their population.

Q. How does your Health Intelligence platform align with the existing medical practice?

We’ve built our Health Intelligence platform to provide employers with the tools to more strategically design and manage employee benefits. Our platform aligns with existing practices in a unified system that uncovers opportunities to improve care efficiency and effectiveness. Using national evidence-based clinical guidelines, our Health Intelligence platform identifies gaps in chronic care with the same standards used by physicians and providers. To ensure Springbuk supports current medical methods, our rich insights, automation features, and predictive modeling are powered by a team of clinical experts as well as the latest in machine learning and AI capabilities.

Q. Do you have any new services ready to be launched?

The paradigm of technology users has changed and so should the software that enterprise users buy. For instance, we have all become accustomed to a linguistic search. Each time we “google” or use our voice to search for an answer we are using the advanced machinery that fuels much of modern tech. Last year, we visioned the same technology paradigm being used within our platform. We already use advanced algorithms to serve up suggestions but we needed a solution that could solve any question to match modern user experiences. So, we launched Answers™. We’ve combined the most advanced technology and NLP resources to move the traditional analytics platform into the future. Now, instead of spending potentially hours building out the search function in a traditional tool, you can have an answer in seconds. This curated search tool, powered by machine learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP), equips benefit leaders with data-informed answers to their most pressing business questions in real-time.

Covid brought us a new opportunity to think about how to use our platform in the heat of this battle. Our remarkable team of data science and clinicians focused on the challenges and opportunities employer benefits teams are facing from the trickle-down effects of COVID-19. As the reality of the pandemic set in, we saw employers begin to identify how COVID-19 would impact their 2021 health benefits spend. One of Springbuk’s responses to this was to use our latest solution, Answers™. In October 2020, we released additional data queries in Answers to help clients understand the impact of COVID-19 on their population, including the average and total paid amount for those diagnosed with COVID-19 and frequency for COVID-19 antibody, antigen, and molecular testing. Additionally, our Health Intelligence platform generates data-driven COVID-19 predictive insights for our customers supported by risk change analysis and other COVID-specific reports. These insights provide direction for companies interested in identifying members who would be at risk for more severe complications if they were to contract COVID-19 and provide recommendations to be proactive in protecting those individuals.

Meet the leader behind the vision of Springbuk

Rod Reasen, the CEO of Springbuk, imagines a world where every health care decision is backed and guided by data. He co-founded Springbuk in 2015 with a vision to empower self-funded employers and their benefits advisors to prevent disease with data. Through Rod’s leadership, Springbuk was developed as a benefit analytics platform that applies the latest technology and data science methodologies to provide deep analytic insights that facilitate data-informed decisions to help employers optimize their employee health benefit investments. Before launching Springbuk, Rod founded and scaled a benefits consulting firm into one of the largest in the Midwest. Additionally, in 2009, he launched the nationally recognized Healthiest Employers award program designed to recognize America’s top healthiest workplaces. Rod’s passion in his professional life is finding creative and innovative ways to help organizations improve their employees’ health outcomes.

“The Springbuk Health Intelligence platform helps you maximize your most valuable asset—your people—by identifying opportunities to direct your resources for the highest impact. Because in today’s economy, employers can’t afford not to act.”