With a recent acquisition, Unite Us will build out its technology that coordinates patient care across healthcare providers and social services. It recently bought Carrot Health, which has a large dataset of consumer and health data, for an undisclosed amount.
The deal would help Unite Us improve outcomes by proactively engaging with patients, Unite Us CEO and Co-Founder Dan Brillman said.
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“If we know someone is likely to be food insecure or housing insecure, we can proactively engage and get in front of them so they can know about the systems they need earlier,” he told MedCity News.
Past insights are also important. For example, to help a patient with diabetes, it would be critical to also know if they were food insecure in recent months, or didn’t have a primary care physician, he said.
Carrot Health was founded in 2014 by Kurt Waltenbaugh, who previously was Optum’s senior director of product strategy. The company uses its troves of data to make predictive models for health behaviors and health outcomes, though the methodology behind them is proprietary.
Carrot’s employees will join the combined company, and its product will become part of Unite Us’ Insights segment. But Brillman said the acquisition would ripple through the rest of the company.
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“It’ll have an impact on every part of our business,” he said.
As the pandemic continues, Brillman said he is watching policies around housing insecurity, unemployment and benefits. He said more community organizations and healthcare providers are looking to use his company’s technology to connect people to services.
“It’s a big driver of (people’s) health,” he said. “Everyone’s trying to avoid driving higher healthcare costs or utilization of the healthcare system when it’s getting overloaded again in another wave.”
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