One of the largest Medicaid health plans in the country is teaming up with one of the most successful home-based care startups to serve around 40,000 members in Texas.
On Thursday, the Texas-based Superior HealthPlan announced a home health partnership with MedArrive.
“Essentially, what we’re going to be doing is focusing on how we provide better care into the home to reduce unnecessary ER utilization and unnecessary visits to the ER by this population,” Dan Trigub, co-founder and CEO of MedArrive, told Home Health Care News. “We are going into some of the poorest, most vulnerable communities in the state of Texas. Unfortunately, there are many folks in Texas – and beyond – who utilize the ED as their primary care physician, essentially.”
MedArrive is a New York-based startup that both coordinates and delivers care in the home. Through the partnership, MedArrive will offer its services to those 40,000 or so Superior patients, many of which have very complex health care needs.
The idea is that, through MedArrive’s capabilities and offerings in the home, care gaps will be closed, and social drivers of health will be addressed.
As a part of the partnership, members will also have better access to virtual behavioral health services through Brave Health.
“We’re proud to partner with MedArrive and Brave Health on this initiative, which will expand our abilities to provide quality healthcare to many of our members,” David Harmon, chief medical director at Superior HealthPlan, said in a statement. “This new collaboration paves the way for hands-on, personalized and integrated services provided by MedArrive and Brave Health and we believe our members will greatly benefit from this new relationship.”
On Trigub’s end, he believes the partnership will be a perfect application based on what MedArrive does on a daily basis.
“This population is really what we’ve built for since day one,” he said. “These are dual-eligible members, this is our sweet spot. Our mission on Day One was to focus on these underserved, vulnerable populations. Unlike other vendors and providers out there, our mission isn’t to build a beautiful app, throw it in the app store and you push a button to get care. This population can, frankly, never afford that. Secondly, they don’t have the resources or wherewithal to even know how to use a platform like that.”
Instead, MedArrive is focused on building relationships with payers like Superior, accessing vulnerable populations and customizing care programs, Trigub said.
Field providers will visit the homes of members who enroll in the program. Caregivers will then provide of in-home health care services, diagnostics, health assessments and other preventive health measures for these members.
When higher-acuity care is needed, field providers can connect members with physician-led telemedicine services. They will also be aiming to address other needs like transportation issues, mobility challenges and nutrition assistance.
Moving forward, there is room for growth within Texas, Trigub said.
“Superior has millions of Medicaid members in the state of Texas, so it’s hard to say how much of that population we will reach beyond just this first phase of the program,” Trigub said. “But that’s certainly just the starting point. We do anticipate it will grow.”
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