Well being programs are nonetheless struggling to have interaction sufferers past the hospital setting, with many Individuals turning to payviders and retail healthcare choices out of comfort. This shift shouldn’t be solely disrupting the continuity of care — but additionally driving care leakage and undermining the long-term sustainability of conventional well being programs.
One Virginia-based supplier just lately struck a partnership that seeks to deal with this drawback.
VHC Well being teamed up with digital doctor follow HealthTap to spice up sufferers’ entry to on-demand pressing care. By the partnership, VHC sufferers can entry care from HealthTap’s physicians by video visits for analysis, therapy and prescriptions for widespread circumstances.
The service is designed to increase handy entry to care whereas decreasing pointless emergency division visits — all whereas guaranteeing continuity with VHC’s in-person suppliers, famous HealthTap CEO Sean Mehra.
“VHC Well being is fixing for 365-day entry — filling the hole throughout evenings, weekends and holidays. By integrating HealthTap, VHC extends its attain instantly into the affected person’s house, guaranteeing that when a affected person wants care at an odd hour, they keep throughout the VHC ecosystem somewhat than leaking to a disjointed third occasion,” he defined.
HealthTap goals to ship a frictionless and acquainted expertise for sufferers, he added.
A affected person accesses the service instantly by VHC’s digital platform at any time when they should. If a affected person finally ends up needing greater than a digital seek the advice of, like an X-ray or a specialist go to, HealthTap physicians digitally route that referral instantly again to VHC’s suppliers.
Mehra identified that the monetary expertise is as deeply built-in because the scientific one. Sufferers pay their normal copay simply as they might for any VHC go to as a result of HealthTap’s billing is built-in with VHC’s current payer contracts — that means there is no such thing as a confusion about out-of-network prices.
“(Sufferers) aren’t beginning over with a stranger — they’re accessing an extension of their medical house. It’s the comfort of tech with the belief of their native system,” Mehra declared.
VHC is HealthTap’s flagship well being system companion with this deep-integration mannequin, he famous.
VHC CEO Chris Lane described the collaboration as a complete effort to additional improve the affected person expertise at his well being system.
He highlighted VHC’s dedication to growing entry to care and stated this partnership establishes the infrastructure wanted to supply a extra seamless affected person expertise.
“With the way forward for healthcare more and more centered on receiving high-quality providers from the consolation of house, this collaboration allows sufferers to entry pressing medical care nearly. We particularly sought a companion that met the best requirements, together with Joint Fee accreditation for telehealth,” Lane remarked.
Because the collaboration goes on, he stated VHC will observe metrics associated to affected person and supplier satisfaction to find out success.
Picture: Evgeniia Siiankovskaia, Getty Pictures
