Musculoskeletal

Reduce unwarranted care variation, with fewer denials vs. your current musculoskeletal management program

Cohere’s fully-delegated delivery of our intelligent prior authorization solution for musculoskeletal care offers health plans an end-to-end solution to drive additional cost savings and better care outcomes while reducing provider abrasion

The result?

43%

reduction in medically unnecessary surgeries (arthroscopy)

12%

shift of inpatient to outpatient setting (arthroplasty)

15%

medical cost savings over previous program with 63% reduction in denial rate

92%

provider satisfaction

Download our case study or view our one-page infographic to learn more about how we are driving these savings and more at a leading national health plan.

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Powering our fully delegated solution for musculoskeletal services is Cohere Unify™, our intelligent UM prior authorization platform.

Cohere’s platform is the only UM technology to enable providers to see the full context of the patient’s care path from within their existing authorization workflows, while surfacing dynamic, evidence-based suggestions to influence decisions towards high value care before the care is rendered. This unique approach allows providers to orient prior authorizations to the whole episode of care, improving patient access and experiences, while reducing friction.

Services Covered

Using evidence-based guidelines developed in partnership with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), Cohere’s musculoskeletal solution addresses the full range of potential care, from conservative interventions to more advanced procedures.

Advanced imaging

Pain management

Therapies (PT, OT & ST)

Specialty drugs

Surgery – Hand

Surgery – Ortho

Surgery – Spine

Download our white paper to learn more about our partnership with the AAOS to reimagine prior authorization in musculoskeletal care.

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Foster collaboration with providers and patients by simplifying and improving the process

Our differentiated approach

1

Interoperable, design-first, end-to-end automation

Our platform simplifies the process for providers by fully automating the authorization across the entire patient episode from within their workflow, including EMR integration

2

Intelligent, patient-centered care paths

Using proprietary evidence-based clinical criteria developed in collaboration with the AAOS, our technology identifies and shifts patients toward optimal, condition-specific care paths using real-time analytics

3

Proactive moments of upstream influence

Unique in-workflow “nudges” offer real-time guidance to patient-specific, clinically optimal care choices at the point of diagnosis. For example, when clinically appropriate the technology may prompt the physician to shift a site-of-service from inpatient to outpatient

4

Real-time decisioning accelerates patient access to care

Structured data collection, a policy-agnostic rules engine, and machine learning all work together to provide a clinically responsible automated approval in real-time. In a fully delegated delivery model, the limited number of authorizations not automatically determined are typically resolved in less than two days by our clinical review team

5

Provider & patient activation triggers built into the workflow

Intelligent prompts activate providers and patients to engage in collaborative care decisioning

Headshot of Brian Covino, Chief Medical Officer
Meet our Musculoskeletal Leadership

Brian Covino, M.D., FAAOS

Chief Medical Officer

After practicing orthopedic surgery for more than 25 years, Dr. Brian Covino joined Cohere in 2020 after having served as a consultant since 2018.  During his years as a practicing surgeon, Dr. Covino was a partner at Knoxville Orthopaedic Clinic/OrthoTennessee specializing in joint replacement surgery.  He holds a bachelor’s from Harvard University as well as an M.D. from Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Covino received his surgical training at the University of Virginia Graduate School of Medical Education and completed a fellowship at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

Headshot of Traci Granston Barthel, M.D.

Traci Granston, M.D.

Vice President of Clinical Strategy

For more than twenty years, Dr. Granston has been an orthopedic surgeon specializing in hand surgery. She received her undergraduate degree in science and master’s of business administration from the University of Washington, attended medical school at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and completed her orthopedic surgery training at the University Hospitals of Washington, Cleveland, and Case Western Reserve. Dr. Granston is active in the Vanderbilt University’s School of Medicine Campaign Cabinet, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, and the American Society of Surgery of the Hand.

Adrian Thomas employee headshot

Adrian Thomas, M.D., FAAOS

Associate Medical Director

Dr. Thomas is a Board Certified Orthopaedic Spine Surgeon who has been in practice since 2010. In addition to serving as Associate Medical Director at Cohere, he is a partner at New Hampshire NeuroSpine Institute in Bedford, NH. Dr. Thomas received his undergraduate degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, attended medical school at Stanford University School of Medicine, completed his orthopaedic surgery residency at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, and an adult spine fellowship at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston.

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