News and Market Developments
HealthAffairs Blog: To Improve Care For Patients With Complex Needs, Expand Home Visits (5/11) – Patients with complex needs, including those with multiple chronic conditions, functional limitations, or homebound status, often face major challenges in accessing care. Home-based primary care, the next generation of “house calls” that were common in the first half of the 20th century, can provide an effective solution. A growing body of literature suggests that home visits, whether performed by primary care teams or as part of care management efforts, can improve health outcomes for patients who are frail or have limited mobility.
mHealthIntelligence: Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic to Expand Home-Based Connected Health Program (5/13) – Kaiser Permanente and the Mayo Clinic are planning to expand a relatively new care model that combines telehealth, mHealth and in-person visits to treat acute care patients in their own homes rather than the hospital. The two health systems have announced a $100 million investment in Medically Home, a Boston-based company that has been working with, among others, the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Adventist Health and UNC Health on acute care at home programs The investment will help the Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente scale up the connected health platform in their regions.
Home Health Care News: How SNF Operator Masonicare Leveraged Its Home-Based Care Services to Adapt to COVID-19 (5/16) – In the age of COVID-19, companies operating in the senior care space have been forced to be adaptable. It’s in this environment where Masonicare — a skilled nursing facility (SNF) operator — began amplifying its home-based care services while downsizing its facilities. Wallingford, Connecticut-based Masonicare is a not-for-profit senior care provider that operates independent living, assisted living, memory care and continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) across three main campuses. The company also provides home health, hospice and palliative care, plus homemaker and companionship services. It has seven home-based care branches throughout Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Fierce Healthcare: AdventHealth, DispatchHealth expand at-home acute care partnership to new markets (5/18) – At-home health care startup DispatchHealth has inked a new deal with AdventHealth to bring the former’s technology into Florida and Missouri homes. Announced Tuesday, the deal builds upon an existing Tampa, Florida-based collaboration between the startup and the faith-based health system. It will see new deployments of the service across Florida’s Daytona Beach, Ocala and Orlando as well as the Kansas City metro area. Patients in these markets will be able to use their phone or DispatchHealth’s app or website to request in-home acute medical care for viral infections, COPD exacerbations, congestive heart failure and other conditions ranging in severity, according to the announcement.
Home Health Care News: Hoping to Create an In-Home Care Convener Powerhouse, The Helper Bees Acquires healthAlign (5/18) – The Helper Bees (THB), an “insurtech” company that works with payers and home-based care providers, has acquired healthAlign, a similarly positioned convener also focused on the home. It’s a move that reflects the larger shift of health care services into the home, a trend that provides an opportunity for organizations like THB and healthAlign to create value by making home-based care in the U.S. more organized and effective. Announced Tuesday, the acquisition is effective immediately.
NPR: The Pandemic Proved Hospitals Can Deliver Care To Seriously Ill Patients At Home (5/20) – Late last year, Janet Yetenekian got seriously ill with COVID-19, sick enough to warrant going to the hospital. But instead, the hospital came to her. She got medical care in her own home in Glendale, Calif. "It was even better than the hospital," Yetenekian laughs. "They were constantly reaching out — it's time for you to do your vitals, or it's time for you to take your medications." Yetenekian contracted the coronavirus in December after friends invited her family to an afternoon barbecue. It seemed like a safe antidote to pandemic isolation. But the day after the gathering, the host came down with a fever. A test confirmed it was COVID-19.
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