Partnership Will Boost Value-Based Care in West Virginia, State With Highest CKD Mortality Rate

To improve kidney care in its home state, West Virginia University (WVU) Medicine will partner with Interwell Health, a kidney care management company. West Virginia has the highest mortality rate in the country for people living with chronic kidney disease (CKD), according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Interwell contracts with regional and national payers in value-based agreements, partnering with physicians to improve patients’ health while lowering the cost of care. WVU Medicine nephrologists will join the Interwell network, which includes more than 1800 nephrologists across the United States and Puerto Rico.

Interwell’s model brings together nurses, dietitians, social workers, and care coordinators who support and educate patients between physician visits to help slow disease progression. Its predictive models identify patients most at risk of progression and hospitalization, while a specialized care team conducts prompt outreach after discharge to avoid readmissions.

“This partnership with Interwell opens the door to better care for our patients,” said Rebecca Schmidt, DO, a nephrologist with WVU Medicine. “By approaching kidney disease from a population health perspective, we can use machine learning and other technologies to examine the progression of disease and use that data to implement more effective treatment plans.”