Healthcare Analytics for Arizona Hospitals and Clinics

Arizona's 90+ acute care hospitals serve a state whose healthcare system faces challenges without parallel in most of the US. Banner Health — 30 hospitals across Arizona and the Western US, the largest non-profit employer in Arizona — operates the dominant hospital network in the Phoenix metro, serving a population that has grown by 40% in the past two decades and continues to strain facility capacity. HonorHealth, Dignity Health Arizona, Mayo Clinic Arizona, Valleywise Health (the county safety net system), and University of Arizona Health Network round out the major system landscape, each serving distinct patient populations across a state that spans desert, mountains, and tribal lands.

Arizona's extreme heat — Phoenix has recorded 110°F+ temperatures for extended periods, and heat records continue to break — has driven a tripling of heat-related ER visits over the past decade. This is an emerging analytics challenge: hospitals must model heat event timing, predict surge volumes, and identify the highest-risk patient populations (the elderly, unhoused individuals, outdoor workers) before heat events peak. Arizona also has the largest concentration of Native American tribal communities of any continental US state. Indian Health Service (IHS) and Tribally-operated health programs serve these populations under federal frameworks, but for patients who use both IHS/tribal facilities and AHCCCS-contracted hospitals, data integration and encounter attribution create analytics complexity that most health systems underestimate.

AHCCCS — Arizona's Medicaid program — has operated entirely through managed care since 1982, longer than any other state Medicaid program. AHCCCS contracts with Mercy Care Plan (Dignity Health), UnitedHealthcare Community Plan, Magellan Complete Care (for behavioral health), and Banner University Family Care for physical and behavioral health services. AHCCCS requires MCOs and contracted providers to meet AHCCCS-specific quality standards including HEDIS measures, preventive care rates, and chronic disease management metrics. Arizona's Comprehensive Medical and Dental Plan (CMDP) for children in foster care adds specialized reporting requirements for hospitals serving this population.

Arizona hospitals submit encounter data through AHCCCS's Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) and participate in the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association's quality reporting programs. AHCCCS's performance measurement framework includes HEDIS and CAHPS measures that determine MCO contract performance scores, creating downstream quality reporting obligations for contracted hospitals. CMS federal programs — MIPS, HRRP, HVBP — add federal reporting requirements that Arizona hospitals must manage in parallel with AHCCCS state obligations.