Healthfirst, a not-for-profit health plan with more than a million members in New York, is teaming up with eCaring as part of an effort to reduce unnecessary ER visits and hospital readmissions, using real-time patient data generated through home care.
Healthfirst members who are dual eligibles for both Medicare and Medicaid and who are enrolled in the its CompleteCare Special Needs Plan will be targeted by New York-based eCaring, which will apply its data analysis and cloud-based monitoring software, by way of tablets.
Initially, the monitoring will involve 200 CompleteCare members in their homes, with the intent of keeping those patients at home and out of the hospital. Healthfirst has a total of some 3,000 members in CompleteCare.
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The data collected is filtered into several alerts and notifications that the health plan said can be quickly addressed by one of its care managers and support team.
“Using eCaring with our home health care aides and our mobile medical practice partners will enable Healthfirst to promote timely home and community interventions that we believe will result in fewer unnecessary emergency department visits, fewer inpatient admissions and improved chronic disease management,” Dr. Susan Beane, Healthfirst vice president and medical director, said in a statement.
Last year, Healthfirst targeted the same dual eligibles with text alerts aimed at improving medication adherence with Silicon Valley startup HealthCrowd. In a pilot, the two companies found that 86 percent of Medicaid recipients for Healthfirst regularly use mobile technology, which in turn could allow for great potential for patient engagement.
