Insurer Humana has collaborated with DispatchHealth to allow its members to avail of hospital-level healthcare facilities at home. The step assumes significance considering more and more people are now looking for care at home in the time of the Covid-19 global pandemic. To begin with, according to DispatchHealth CEO Mark Prather, the members in Denver and Tacoma will have access to the services, which could be extended to Arizona, Texas and Nevada in the months to come.
- The new plan offers services like on-call DispatchHealth medical team of a physician and an assistant. Remote monitoring and daily visits of the medical team along with an emergency call button for patients are part of the advanced care program.
- All services provided by DispatchHealth, including hospital transfer, will be covered by the payer under the plan.
- Susan Diamond, president of Humana’s home business, says, “We see better outcomes, including lower hospital readmission rates, and a lower cost of providing care when patients are treated at home.”
- The hospital-at-home program of DispatchHealth covers as many as 15 states. The program was launched in December 2019. Among its other major care services are imaging, lab, ultrasound and IV fluids administration.
- “The pandemic has magnified the importance of caring for vulnerable patients in the safe environment of their homes in place of traveling to access care in a facility,” said DispatchHealth CEO Mark Prather. He adds that seniors, mostly without access to any transportation, form the biggest chunk of its home care patients.
- Rising demand and success of medical care at home have made even major players like Johns Hopkins Medicine and Mount Sinai Health System adopt these programs.