Gail Airasian, Chief Strategy Officer at Kyruus Health, talks Google Cloud partnership

The suite of Kryuus Connect for Payers solutions was added to the Google Cloud Marketplace this week

Transparency and access in healthcare are two of the biggest problems, with 44% of members saying that a lack of price transparency prevents them from seeking the care they need and 80% of members expressing a willingness to schedule care directly from their health plan's website.

Care access platform Kyruus Health helps solve both of these problems by making sure that every stakeholder, including providers, health systems, and patients, can access the most accurate and relevant information so they can make the best decisions for their care.

The company, which connects 425,000 providers across more than 1,000 hospitals and 500 medical groups, and more than 90 million health plan members across 100 health plan brands, will be able to broaden its reach thanks to a partnership announced earlier this week with Google Cloud, on which the suite of Kyruus Connect for Payers solutions would be added to Google Cloud Marketplace.

Gail Airasian, the Chief Strategy Officer of Kyruus Health, talked to VatorNews about the company's mission, how it helps make health more transparent, what it means for Kyruus to be available on the Google Cloud Marketplace. 

VatorNews: What is the problem that you're solving at Kyruus? What gap are you filling in the healthcare ecosystem?

Gail Airasian: Kyruus Health aims to improve patient access, boost patient engagement, and reduce the administrative burdens for health plans, health systems and medical groups by connecting patients to the care and resources they need when they need them. Kyruus Health delivers a data-driven approach to patient-provider matching and scheduling, giving patients more control throughout their care journey.

VN: How are you solving that problem? How is your solution unique? 

GA: Kyruus Health is the end-to-end technology foundation that enables plans to deliver unparalleled, seamless, and consistent experiences for their members — supporting increased member engagement, informed care decisions, and compliance with transparency regulations.

For health systems and hospitals, Kyruus Health connects disparate systems and databases to build a single source of truth. Accurate, comprehensive provider data creates consistency across access channels, enables digital self-service tools such as self-scheduling, and drives operational efficiencies.

VN: Who is the typical customer for Kyruus? Walk me through some typical use cases and how your customers interact with your platform.

GA: Typical Kyruus Health customers include health plans,  health systems, and medical groups. 

Our Google partnership is currently focused on the health plan space. Kyruus Health helps plans support their members by empowering them to control their care. Through Kyruus Health Search tools, plan members are presented with care options that include provider details and cost and quality information to help them choose the best care for them.— and health plans can ensure compliance with a regulatory landscape focused on ending surprise bills.

VN: What kind of ROI have you been able to calculate for your customers? Do you have hard numbers you can share?

GA: At Geisinger Health Plan, 79% of participating providers enhanced their profiles, resulting in 29% point increase in organic traffic and a 30% point increase in provider data accuracy. We help our clients direct care more thoughtfully, which improves provider satisfaction and helps the health plan work more collaboratively with the provider organizations they work closely with.

VN: How did this partnership with Google Cloud come about? How did the two companies decide to work together?

GA: We’re a long standing customer of Google Cloud, so when they approached us about the marketplace, we realized our clients could benefit from Kyruus Health expanding our relationship with Google.  Our closer alignment should allow our clients to build on their Google relationships and cloud partnership by including their Kyruus Health products in their cloud commitments. 

VN: What will be different for Kyruus going forward now that you are available on Google Cloud Marketplace? How will that change the way you interact with health systems?

GA: Health plans already connected to the Google Cloud Marketplace will be able to integrate Kyruus Connect for Payers more easily, providing better care for their members more quickly, and with a simpler approach for contracting. We hope to make this available to our delivery side clients over time as well. 

VN: How do you expect this collaboration to expand your reach? How many additional members do you anticipate joining the platform?

GA: We already have an expansive reach. Currently, we serve more than 90 million health plan members from across 100 health plan brands. We believe our relationship with Google helps health plans get better value from their technology toolset, and expect our prospective clients to see that as well. 

VN: Do you see this as a validation of Kyruus and the work you've done so far?

GA: Google is a giant, not only in the technology space but now in health. Kyruus Health is a market leader as well, with satisfied clients across both health plans and health systems.  Our product is the best solution to help patients find the right care for them. We see this as a way to benefit our clients by working together, but think we’ve already validated our market position. 

VN: What's next for the company? What's the grand vision for Kyruus going forward?

GA: We’re a care access platform. The more people we can help access the right care, the better. And we’ll keep working to ensure we can help as many people as possible while expanding our footprint in the plan and provider spaces. We’re working now on creating connections between the health plans and the health systems they work with, so adjusting our aperture to make connections between healthcare delivery and where patients look for care.