We’ve seen it in retail: Super Target, Super WalMart.
We’ve seen it in tech: smartphones, tablets.
Convergence is coming to healthcare too — Medtronic teaming up with payers to find clues on what therapies work; pharmaceutical companies beginning to collaborate with payers to help develop new drugs; technical advances are prompting convergence in the medical and digital world with famous cardiologist Eric Topol diagnosing a heart attack on a plane using a credit card-sized device that works with an iPhone.
And in Minnesota, another kind of healthcare convergence is taking place. Insurance giant UnitedHealth Group has, in effect, also become a device vendor.
The extraordinary event occurred more than seven months ago when the company announced that a newly formed entity within its fold — hi HealthInnovations — will start providing low-cost, high-quality hearing aids to average Americans.
“While over 90 percent of people with hearing loss can benefit from hearing aids, the current adoption rate in the U.S. is very low, 15 percent, largely due to the high cost of hearing aids,” said Dr. Lisa Tseng, CEO of hi HealthInnovations, in a recent interview with MedCity News. “It can cost upwards of $8,000 and is a barrier to adoption. What we are doing here is innovative in that we are bringing access to people a much more affordable basis.”
How affordable?
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“People who are in our Medicare Advantage Plan and Medicare Part D Plan have access to hearing aids from $0 to just $479 each,” Tseng said.
Retail consumers can expect to pay between $749 and $949, according to an October press release announcing the availability of this service.
UHC has developed two diagnostic tests as well. One is for average consumers with an Internet connection who can use it to see if they are experiencing hearing loss. The other test kit is for primary care physicians, Tseng said.
Here’s convergence in terms of continuity of care — as insurance companies are becoming more involved with primary care physicians and realizing that this is the point of entry for most consumers into the healthcare system.
UnitedHealthcare’s network primary care Medicare providers are simply given the test. Other primary care providers can buy it from hi HealthInnovations, Tseng explained.
But testing is just one aspect of hi HealthInnovations. It also wants to serve the customer from end to end. So, it set upon to design hearing aids as well. It conducted extensive research to determine what features consumers want from their hearing aids as well as looked up the scientific evidence to see what hearing aids worked the best.
That led to a set of specifications. Then, UHC went to a vendor to have the hearing aids manufactured according to those specs. And, voila, there emerged the hi ITC, hi BTE, hi BTE mini and hi BTE power.
Tseng won’t reveal how many of the products have been sold or how many physicians have given the test for determining hearing loss to patients, but said that the reception of the products have been great.
The move is smart on different levels. First, it brings a different level of engagement with average consumers who may paint insurance companies with a broad, and not-so-positive brush. Second, since Medicare doesn’t cover the cost of the hearing aids unless it is tied to an injury, UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage and Part D plans become more attractive to people who can now get the hearing aids at no or lower cost. And this is also a way that UHC is making one portion of the healthcare marketplace less fragmented.
But Tseng captured the intent behind this strategy and other innovations that might come out of hi HealthInnovations best.
“We want to do the things that make healthcare more affordable and higher quality for individuals,” she said. “If we do that, we become their partner throughout their lives.”
It will be interesting to see what other innovations Tseng will oversee at UHC.
