Jumping onto the bandwagon of engaging patients and personalizing health, UnitedHealthcare has updated its Health4Me mobile app in an effort to improve medication management and close gaps in preventive care that could lead to hospitalizations.
The iPhone/iPad and Android versions of the app now feature personalized care alerts, “push” notifications and integration with United’s OptumRx pharmacy benefits unit for medication management. For Apple iOS, Health4Me now also supports Touch ID fingerprint sign-in and ApplePay for paying medical bills.
“People might not even know they have gaps in care,” explained Craig Hankins, UnitedHealthcare vice president for digital products. Missing recommended screenings, immunizations and checkups can lead to chronic diseases or delayed diagnoses of acute ailments, which raises healthcare costs.
The medication management feature provides a digital “medicine cabinet” listing each member’s prescriptions, just as in OptumRx’s web portal. Users can order refills through OptumRx’s mail-order pharmacy, search for commercial pharmacies and look up what drugs will cost them out of pocket while still at the doctor’s office.
UnitedHealthcare is first making the updated Health4Me app available to its Medicaid managed care members — low-income people who tend to have more health issues than the general population — in 17 states. The company also has chosen a pilot group among its commercially insured members.
“For the commercial business, we’re rolling it out gradually,” Hankins said. “It’s a much larger population.”
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.
Before the end of the year, UnitedHealthcare will add “clinically focused” notifications to Health4me, based on individuals’ claims data. This, according to the Minnetonka, Minnesota-based insurer, might include tips on prenatal care for pregnant women or support programs for those suffering from back pain.
These alerts will be based on guidelines “all dictated by our clinical teams,” Hankins said.
Health4Me has been downloaded 2.3 million times since its initial release in 2012, according to Hankins.
Photo: UnitedHealthcare
