Rick VanNess leads TriCore’s transition towards value-based care, overseeing an innovative product team that creates new products and services for alternative payment methods. Under his leadership, Rick has implemented a robust strategy that encompasses three phases, each with specific objectives aimed at repositioning the laboratory from ancillary to tertiary care. In the first phase, TriCore diversified by incorporating subscription and/or upside payment methods. The creation of patent-pending algorithms enabled the automated analysis of laboratory data, providing real-time actionable insights to help customers identify health conditions, improve outcomes, and lower the cost of care in their markets. The next two phases focus on repositioning the laboratory from ancillary to tertiary care by proactively closing care gaps within draw sites. This empowers TriCore to correlate to outcomes and pursue full-risk contracting. These crucial next steps are actively being negotiated and will propel TriCore to tertiary care, allowing the laboratory to fully correlate to quality measures and patient outcomes as part of full-risk contracting. 

Rick has over fifteen years of experience in healthcare, with various peer-reviewed articles and presentations reflecting his strategic approach. He holds a Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of New Mexico and a Bachelor’s of Science in Occupational Health from New Mexico State University. Outside of his role at TriCore, Rick serves as the President of the New Mexico Biotechnology and Bioscience Organization, a trade organization with a mission to catalyze New Mexico’s biotech industry. Additionally, he is a Board member for Lovelace Westside Hospital (a division of Ardent), an Advisory Board Member for Syncronys (New Mexico’s HIE), and a Community Scientific Reviewer for the University of New Mexico’s Main Institutional Review Board.