How Astrana Health is eradicating spreadsheets and empowering care

Astrana Health is a leader in value-based care, supporting over 1.1 million members across 32+ markets with a network of more than 12,000 providers. They focus on multiple lines of business, including Medicare Advantage (MA & ACO), Medicaid, and commercial exchanges, while delivering comprehensive care programs such as disease management, behavioral health, and complex care management. 

Challenge

Astrana faced three significant challenges in delivering value-based care effectively:

1. Buried in spreadsheets – Care teams were overwhelmed with numerous spreadsheets containing patient data, making it difficult to extract insights and prioritize actions.

2. Cross-team coordination struggles – Managing patient outreach and coordination across multiple care teams and programs was cumbersome, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities for timely interventions.

3. Limited automation in care programs – The lack of automation in care workflows meant that teams had minimal support in defining the next steps, resulting in operational bottlenecks and higher administrative burdens.

Solution and Impact 

To address these challenges, Astrana implemented its proprietary care management system, Pathways, which focused on patient stratification, care program orchestration, and workflow management. However, the missing link in Astrana’s ecosystem was Awell, which played a critical role in automating and streamlining workflows.

• Data-driven patient identification – Awell integrates multiple data sources to triage high-risk patients, such as those recently discharged, frequent emergency department visitors, or those with chronic conditions.

• Automated task assignments – By designing repeatable care flows, Awell enables task automation, such as sending faxes to primary care providers (PCPs) or SMS reminders to patients.

• Enhanced care prioritization – care teams receive guided tasks at the right time in Pathways, improving efficiency and patient outcomes.

"I really want to kill more spreadsheets. When we're trying to scale the population and the people we're reaching, we must move into a system where workflows are codified and adaptable, allowing clinical teams to coordinate effectively while reducing administrative burden." - Kejia Zhu, VP Product & Design