5G: Vitas Healthcare, a hospice and palliative care provider, is working with AT&T to test whether virtual reality delivered through a 5G network can help reduce pain and anxiety for patients receiving end-of-life care. Large institutions like USC, Spectrum Health, Emory and the VA have all launched programs utilizing 5G in unique ways to try to better patient care.
Value Contracts: 79 health plan payment innovation directors out of 100 we polled last month say they are building out condition-based episodic structures that will be the same across patient populations – commercial, Medicare and Medicaid – to allow for uniformity, easier measurement and value-based pay, but also for aligned incentives for providers who treat patients who migrate from commercial to Medicare.
Home Buy: Anthem is expanding its home health business by acquiring myNEXUS, a home healthcare company that provides integrated nursing management to seniors in 20 states. The company currently serves around 1.7 million MA members and the acquisition will allow the company to expand its footprint, while adding to Anthem’s focus on shifting site of service to the least costly setting.
Type 1: Passport Health, Molina’s Medicaid health plan in Kentucky, is partnering with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services to help improve diabetic control among adults enrolled in Medicaid and reduce the prevalence of type 1 diabetic ketoacidosis among children. Interventions will include more referrals to diabetes self-management and support programs, enhanced care management and care coordination, and increased follow ups and interventions from endocrinologists following adverse A1C lab results.
UberMove: Last fall we reported that Uber partnered with NimbleRx to deliver prescription drugs and now Uber is teaming up with another prescription delivery service, ScriptDrop, to deliver medications in 37 states. Uber will be the default delivery service for ScriptDrop pharmacies, which plan to extend to all 50 states eventually.
Food Advocate: Wisconsin-based health system Advocate Aurora has invested in San Francisco-based Foodsmart, which offers nutrition counseling and other digital services to make it easier for people to eat well on a budget. Advocate’s new investment arm aims to fund businesses that promote health and wellness, specifically enabling people to age independently, supporting parents in raising children and helping people achieve their whole health goals.
Anesthesia Union: CRNAs at 3 of Beaumont Health’s Michigan hospitals have formed a union in order to negotiate with their new employer, NorthStar Anesthesia. In January, 180 CRNAs were outsourced by Beaumont to NorthStar, who began providing anesthesia services to the health system. NorthStar employs more than 500 anesthesiologists and 2000 CRNAs and this will be the first unionized group at any of the 140 centers where NorthStar manages anesthesiology services.
ExtraPoint: I know many of us may be trying to see relatives this weekend and on some level it just has to happen. My 83-year-old mother-in-law started packing her car Tuesday when we told her we were coming up on Good Friday. She got so confused about who was going where and actually began to drive to us in Connecticut before turning around because she “forgot to bring mustard we might need.” Last night she called my brother-in-law to say we had already visited and went to Fenway Park to see the Red Sox. Mom was panicking, not because we are a handful when we visit – which we are – but because cognitive decline has a cruel but real way of limiting brain function. Mom taught middle school religion for 35 years before retiring in 2008 about a decade after Arnie passed, but in retirement she’s been unable to replace that social interaction and stimulation. If we’ve learned anything from this, it’s that keeping the mind and body active in retirement can be awfully difficult when you are alone and controlled by anxiety. Her brother, 84-year-old Father Michael Connolly, rides a bike every morning through Spokane before his political science lecture class at Gonzaga. He still teaches, still engages, uses google drive and eats coffee ice cream every afternoon in the student union. Unlike mom, Uncle Mike surrounds himself with stimulation. On Saturday, we will begin what we hope will start a new chapter for mom. We will sit down around 8 o’clock and watch the Zags play UCLA in the basketball tournament. It won’t really matter that mom won’t remember the game a day later, what will matter is the walk around the neighborhood on Easter morning with her grandkids, and a few chocolate bunnies at noon.