Avaneer Health Launches Decentralized Network for Healthcare Administration

Digital network company Avaneer Health has launched a private, peer-to-peer network with several healthcare organizations that helped found the company in 2020.

Avaneer Health was founded in 2020 by a consortium of companies, including Aetna, a CVS Health company; Elevance Health; Cleveland Clinic; Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), a Mutual Legal Reserve Company (HCSC); Merative; the PNC Financial Services Group Inc.; and Sentara Healthcare.

In January 2022, the company announced it had received $50 million in seed funding for the venture. When that funding was announced, Tim Skeen, co-chair of Avaneer Health’s board of directors and senior vice president and CIO of Sentara Healthcare, an integrated healthcare system in Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, commented on the potential. “Together, we’re changing the paradigm of healthcare data flows with a secure network empowered by blockchain, FHIR and other leading technologies,” he said.

Avaneer said it is building a secure healthcare data fabric to help solve interoperability challenges. With a single connection to the Avaneer Network, the company said, participants can collaborate and share real-time data, streamlining healthcare administration.

"When we were founded, we embraced a bold vision of a new way to enable data fluidity in healthcare, one that began in 2017 by a group of industry leaders that were committed to re-inventing healthcare from the inside out. This vision is now built and live," said Stuart Hanson, CEO of Avaneer Health, in a statement. "Our secure and trusted network creates the foundation for innovation that will reimagine healthcare administration and save billions of dollars each year. It's an incredibly exciting time for Avaneer Health, our partners and the industry. We finally have the answer to reducing administrative costs while focusing on the patient and clinician experience."

The Avaneer Network will soon include a real-time adjudication application, which the company said would drastically expedite and increase the accuracy of how healthcare claims are submitted and adjudicated.

Avaneer Health touted these advantages of the network:

• Streamlines revenue cycle and lowers costs: With a single connection to the network, participants can collaborate and share real-time data, streamlining healthcare administration. Real-time access to data that is current and automatically updated maximizes efficiencies.
• Strengthens data security and protection: The network seeks to protect against data breaches with a secure platform that features an immutable audit trail and is decentralized, so data remains in control of its originator.
• Empowers innovation and collaboration: Participants can subscribe to and launch innovative solutions in collaboration with payers and providers. With such close collaboration between parties, they can work together to create joint processes that are more efficient and effective.
• Improves patient experience: Streamlined processes expedite care, resulting in cohesive processes that create better patient experiences, as well as less administrative burden for payers, clinicians and provider teams.

"Joining the network and transacting differently with payers and other providers will enable healthcare organizations to improve efficiencies and automate administrative processes, resulting in an enhanced patient and clinician experience," said Sonja O'Malley, senior director of innovation at Cleveland Clinic, in a statement. "Another clear advantage to the network is that data is not aggregated – it remains with the originator. We look forward to seeing additional payers and providers join us on the network in the near future."

“While maintaining strict data privacy, this effort can give everyone involved a more holistic view of an individual's' health, empowering more personalized, whole-health solutions that help us address healthcare's most complex challenges, said Rajeev Ronanki, senior vice president, Elevance Health and president of Carelon Digital Platforms, in a statement.