Pager, a virtual care startup based in New York allowing people to connect to providers when they need it, announced an expansion that will take its telemedicine service to more Americans nationwide.
By opening an office in Raleigh, North Carolina, Pager can now connect patients in all 50 states with clinical resources. Before this, Pager’s service was available in only eight states, largely in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest. Its customers are primarily payers that want to improve member experience by, for example, making it easier for them to schedule telemedicine visits.
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“As we grow, we felt the need – and our customers have asked us for this – to have a nationwide presence, said Walter Jin, chairman and CEO of Pager, in a phone interview.
Pager is among a number of companies looking to streamline customer experience — in some cases by leveraging artificial intelligence. The hope is to deliver a better patient experience and improved outcomes over traditional healthcare, which often shows a fragmented face to patients. The solution often is to improve communication between patients and providers. Luma Health, for example, offers a text message-based service.
For Pager, the key is a mix of technology and people. “We believe that health care really does demand the human touch,” Jin said.
Pager’s new Raleigh office is what the company calls a command center. It is staffed by nurses who communicate with members via text, phone or web portal. Jin describes the nurses as trusted companions who can walk people through whatever questions they have about their health.
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The nurses can handle many questions on their own and may suggest over-the-counter medication or other methods to manage symptoms, said Branko Kolvek, senior vice president of operations for Pager, in a phone interview. In other cases, the nurses and other Pager staff may set up physical or virtual appointments with primary care physicians or other specialists.
Pager’s staff also follows up to make sure patients show up for their appointments, get prescriptions filled and follow through with whatever their doctors recommend, Jin added. The result, he said, is greater compliance with care, an issue that concerns many providers and payers.
The company’s data shows that its members show up to 92% of their scheduled appointments, Jin said. Overall compliance rates vary by area but fall in the 70% range.
‘What we found in the four years that we’ve done this is when we offer convenience to the consumer, we get compliance and compliance gets benefits,” Jin said.
Pager also has a command center at its headquarters in New York. But future growth is expected to take place in Raleigh, where about 10 nurses work. The company chose that city because of the healthcare and technology expertise available in and around Research Triangle Park, Kolvek said. The company has slightly more than 100 employees overall. Its service is available to more than 10 million people in the U.S. and Latin America.
Investors in the company include Goodwater Capital, Lux Capital and New Enterprise Associates, as well as New Jersey-based Horizon Healthcare Services and Veronorte, which represents Grupo Suro, a Latin American health insurer.
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