Carter Dredge, lead futurist of SSM Health.

Telehealth

Teladoc Virtual Primary Care Expands Nationwide

Teladoc Health is using its scale to reach the 80% of adults that “do not have a strong relationship with a primary care physician” by making its Primary360 solution available to US commercial health plans, employers, and other benefits sponsors.

Primary360 is a virtual primary care service that Teladoc has been piloting for the past two years. It is already being used by several large companies and will be available to Aetna members early next year.

• Primary360 allows members to select a primary care provider and develop longitudinal relationships with physician-led care teams. Members receive personalized health plans through Teladoc’s virtual care offerings, and can get help navigating to in-person providers.

• Data from the pilot shows that two-thirds of members previously lacked traditional primary care and that Primary360 helped members detect undiagnosed chronic diseases. One in four chronic conditions identified for members of the pilot were new diagnoses of common disorders such as diabetes and hypertension.

• Half of Primary360 members enrolled in the pilot take advantage of at least one other Teladoc product, while nearly 30% use two additional connected services.

The Takeaway

Although Teladoc is positioning Primary360 mainly as a way to make primary care more accessible, it also serves as a way to bring in new business following slowing membership growth as the pandemic wanes. Teladoc is establishing Primary360 as a hub for its full suite of virtual solutions, giving more patients the ability to receive primary care while widening the patient funnel for its other offerings.

Remote Care

Carbon Health Acquires RPM Company Alertive Healthcare

Carbon Health is extending its home-based care capabilities with the acquisition of remote patient monitoring (RPM) company Alertive Healthcare. 

The move highlights Carbon Health’s focus on having a greater impact outside of its physical clinics at a time when an increasing number of providers are adopting hybrid care models.

• Alertive Healthcare offers a range of RPM tools and hardware for proactively managing patients across a variety of specialties (primary care, cardiology, neurology, nephrology). Alertive’s platform records patient data and sends alerts to providers to decrease the treatment time for chronic conditions.

• Carbon Health provides an “omnichannel care” platform designed to meet patients where they are by delivering care through multiple avenues (in-person clinics, home-based care, and virtually with the Carbon Health app).

• The acquisition allows Carbon Health to integrate Alertive Healthcare’s tools and services into its existing care delivery model. Carbon Health will provide Alertive’s connected devices and monitoring sensors to patients so that they can share vitals with providers. 

Industry Impact

Carbon Health is investing in hardware as a key pillar of its omnichannel care model. The company operates over 90 brick-and-mortar primary care clinics across 14 states, but has been expanding into new channels to meet its goal of becoming “the largest primary care provider in the US” with over 1.5k clinics by 2025. The Alertive Healthcare acquisition arrives shortly after Carbon Health bought remote glucose monitoring company Steady Health in June, which marked its first venture into home-based care.

Nuance’s Patient Engagement Must-Haves

Consumer demands are shifting, and they’re looking to get more out of their digital health technology. Nuance outlines the 5 must-haves for your patient engagement strategy here.

The Wire

• EHR-Integrated App Growth: New data published in JAMIA shows that the number of unique apps that integrate with major EHRs (Allscripts, athenahealth, Cerner, Epic, SMART) increased 20% to 734 during 2020. The most common app functions were administrative (42%), clinical use (38%), and care management (31%). The authors note that standards-based APIs will help to support a more robust ecosystem of third-party apps in the future, but that the proportion of FHIR-enabled apps currently remains stagnant at 22%.

• Elemy Series B: Pediatric behavioral health startup Elemy raised $219m in Series B funding ($323m total funding), which it will use to expand the reach of its in-home and online services for children with autism. After launching in May 2020, the company now has a $1.2b valuation, driven by the success of its customized care plans that can be delivered in the familiar setting of a patient’s home, where children are better able to focus.

• Ransomware Tragedy: When Teiranni Kidd went to have her baby in Springhill Medical Center in July 2019, she was unaware that the hospital was in the midst of a ransomware attack that had disabled delivery room monitors. After the passing of her newborn child, who was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, Kidd is suing the hospital because the hack prevented heart rate monitor alerts from reaching the nurses’ station. If proven in court, the case will mark the first confirmed death from a ransomware attack.

• Reducing Readmissions: Catholic Home Care halved its 30 day readmissions for patients with congestive heart failure from 26% in 2016 to 13% in 2018 following an RPM partnership with Philips. The program provides a tablet and connected scale that informs care teams when patient metrics exceed established parameters, allowing them to determine appropriate follow-ups and standardize care protocols. RPM programs have been a growing focus for many providers, with the Advisory Board indicating that 2.5k hospitals will face HRRP penalties this year.

• Babylon Health Funding: Digital-first provider Babylon Health secured a $200m investment led by sustainability-focused firm AlbaCore, which was drawn to Babylon’s mission of providing healthcare to under-served populations. The new capital will be used to expand Babylon’s membership base and develop its value-based care applications that combine an AI-powered triage platform with physicians available 24/7.

• Telehealth Utilization Declines: FAIR Health’s Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker showed that telehealth utilization fell 6.7% in July 2021, accounting for 4.2% of monthly medical claims. The July decrease represents a slowdown from the 10% telehealth decline in June, although the reasons for use remained similar: 60.7% of virtual visits were for mental health conditions, followed far behind by acute respiratory diseases (3.5%) and developmental disorders (2.3%).

• OpenNotes Concerns: A survey of 30 ophthalmologists published in Nature found that most are worried about OpenNotes, citing concerns such as more patient worrying (75.9%) and confusion (82.8%). Patient confusion would lead 86.2% of respondents to document differently in the medical record. Although 90% of clinicians thought their patients would be offended by comments in open clinical notes, 83% said that effective communication surrounding the notes could improve trust in the patient-provider relationship.

• BetterUp Expansion: In its second fundraise of the year, employer coaching company BetterUp closed a $300m Series E round ($600m total funding) to help reach more workers at its partner organizations. BetterUp provides coaching for topics ranging from diversity and inclusion to mental health, aiming to improve employee performance by developing mental well-being and resilience.

• Medtech Chips: The Wall Street Journal detailed how the global microchip shortage is impacting the medical device supply chain, and how medtech manufacturers are taking advantage of a unique leverage point to get the chips they need. Because other industries order far more microchips, medical device manufacturers are increasingly forced to emphasize that their products “save lives” when asking microchip makers for priority shipments.

• Patients Prefer Home Monitoring: According to a survey of 510 adults with hypertension from the American Heart Association, most patients prefer self-monitoring blood pressure at home, as opposed to at a clinic or kiosk. Patients reported home monitoring as more convenient and accurate, which led to a 90% adherence for home testing, compared to 87% for clinic testing and 68% for kiosk measurements.