DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreen Co. has expanded its relationship with technology provider Inovalon to bring individualized, predictive analytics closer to the point of care at the drug chain’s Healthcare Clinics.

Walgreens said Thursday that Inovalon’s Electronic Patient Assessment Solution Suite (ePASS) will be implemented across more than 400 Healthcare Clinic locations. The companies had announced a multiyear agreement in late September.

The platform will bring Inovalon’s analysis of more than 8.3 billion medical events to Healthcare Clinic programs, helping to identify and resolve gaps in quality, care, assessment, documentation and risk score accuracy. That, in turn, will lead to improved patient health outcomes, health provider insight and health plan performance, the companies said.

"By integrating data analytics, we can gain even deeper insights to help improve patient care and, ultimately, outcomes," Heather Helle, divisional vice president of Healthcare Clinic, said in a statement. "We continue to expand the scope of services, capabilities and footprint at Healthcare Clinics. These types of innovative solutions enable our nurse practitioners and physician assistants to play an increasingly important role as part of a patient’s care team."

Walgreens and Inovalon noted that the tandem of ePASS’ advanced analytics and Healthcare Clinic’s health professionals and laboratory and immunization resources offers a unique solution for health plans, accountable care organizations (ACOs) and integrated care providers as they sharpen their focus on health outcomes and risk score accuracy. Such capabilities are becoming more important as public and private payers increasingly leverage performance data to determine which pharmacies are most effective in effecting positive clinical results for patients.

The ePASS system supports the risk score models of Medicare Advantage, Commercial Health Insurance Exchange and state-managed Medicaid as well as an array of quality outcomes programs, including HEDIS, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Star Ratings, state Medicaid programs. The commercial accreditation requirements of NCQA and URAC also are supported within the platform provided at Healthcare Clinics.

"Bringing advanced analytics to the point of care in real time is a powerful benefit for patients being seen in today’s highly complex health care environment," stated Keith Dunleavy, president and chief executive officer of Bowie, Md.-based Inovalon. "We are proud to be working with Walgreens on this industry-leading initiative, supporting its commitment to improve health care outcomes for Healthcare Clinic partners and patients nationwide."