Healthcare entrepreneurs take note. Health insurer Independence Blue Cross has launched an innovation challenge to develop health IT, devices and education programs to encourage healthy behavior, according to a company statement.
It made the announcement at the kickoff of the country’s first StartUp Weekend Friday in Philadelphia at the offices of Venture F0rth, the event’s organizer. Among the issues it wants to tackle are promoting fitness, preventive medicine, healthy eating, childhood obesity, medication adherence and healthcare access for elderly. Among the criteria for entries are feasibility, sustainability and scalability.
The participating partners are Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs, the Department of Health, What If Innovation Partners and the City of Philadelphia.
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
Participants can submit ideas through July 10 and the winning entries will be announced at the end of July.
The winners get a $50,000 grant towards implementing their idea and presenting it to the insurer. They will also get mentoring help from Wharton and up to three months of desk space at Venture F0rth.
The move by the insurer reflects a trend of payers interested in working with startups or at least expanding their relationship with them to develop innovative approaches to build value for members and promote healthy lifestyle choices. Payers have been getting more actively involved in developing smartphone apps as a cost effective way to stay in touch with members and tap into the increasing pervasiveness of smartphones, which climbed to 472 million in 2011, according to a report by Gartner.
