Health insurer Regence BlueShield has partnered with DispatchHealth to give its members access to hospital-at-home and mobile high-acuity services.
“Hospitalizations in the home is a groundbreaking and exciting shift in care delivery,” Dr. Drew Oliveira, senior executive medical director at Regence, said in a press release. “Our partnership with DispatchHealth enables Regence members to receive clinically appropriate care safely and conveniently in the comfort of their own homes.”
Denver, Colorado-based DispatchHealth offers advanced level home-based care services through its emergency medicine-trained teams. It currently operates in 29 markets across the U.S., with backing from some of health care’s biggest names.
As an organization, Regence serves 3.3 million members through its health plans in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
Under the partnership, Regence members who are living with acute medical illness — such as cellulitis, kidney conditions, COPD exacerbations and more — can receive care services in the home setting.
“The health care landscape is evolving, and non-traditional care strategies are becoming more of the norm as patients’ attitudes have driven this shift over time,” Dr. Mark Prather, CEO and co-founder of DispatchHealth, said in a statement. “Additionally, innovative health plans like Regence understand that more in-home care delivery truly achieves the quadruple aim of improving affordability, health outcomes, patient experience and provider experience — while also reducing readmissions.”
For now, DispatchHealth services are available to Regence members in Pierce County, Washington. The company has plans to expand into more counties throughout the state later this year.
Amedisys to open new operations
Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) has plans to open up its home health operations in Westchester County, New York.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Amedisys has a number of in-home care capabilities, including home health, hospice and personal care services. The company is the second-largest provider of home health in the U.S., according to LexisNexis.
Amedisys’ latest agreement allows the company to operate in Westchester County and the Bronx. The service area gives the company access to 375,000 Medicare enrollees and 165,000 Medicare Advantage enrollees.
“We’re honored to be able to offer our compassionate, clinically distinct care to more patients in more places,” Teonie Aurelio, president of home health at Amedisys, said in a statement. “Expanding our footprint into this key market further establishes Amedisys as America’s solution for aging in place.”
Eden Home Health gains Medicare-certification
Eden Home Health is now Medicare-certified. The Washington State Department of Health issued the Vancouver, Washington-based provider a Certificate of Need to offer home health services in Clark County, Washington.
“Community members within the Clark County region are truly one of a kind,” Brent Weil, president and CEO of the EmpRes Healthcare Family of Companies, said in a statement. “We are honored to grow our presence in order to meet the needs of the community while partnering with existing providers to expand health care services across the continuum of care.”
Eden Home Health is a subsidiary of EmpRes Healthcare. The company’s services lines include skilled nursing, physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, medical social services and home health.
In general, a Certificate of Need program is a state regulatory tool that controls the number of health care resources in an area.
Looking forward, Eden Home Health has plans to make growth investments into the company.
“Our goal is to ‘keep health care local’ to ensure that each community is represented and strategies are implemented specifically to meet the needs of the residents in the communities that we are so honored to serve,” Weil said.
EvergreenHealth partners with Luna
Health system EvergreenHealth has formed a partnership with Luna.
Founded in 2018, Rocklin, California-based Luna provides outpatient physical therapy in the home setting. Through the company’s platform, patients are matched with a physical therapist at the time and location of their choosing.
Meanwhile, EvergreenHealth operates a 318-bed acute care medical center in Kirkland and EvergreenHealth Monroe, a 72-bed hospital. The system also includes a network of 12 primary care practices, six urgent care centers, more than two dozen specialty care practices and home-based care services.
Under the partnership, EvergreenHealth patients in the Seattle area will have access to Luna’s on-demand therapy services.
“We are very pleased that we were able to connect with over 50,000 patients last year via virtual care visits during the pandemic, and this convenient care model, along with in-home opportunities, like our physical therapy partnership with Luna, is another way EvergreenHealth is living our purpose: working together to enrich the health and well-being of every life we touch,” Dr. Jeff Tomlin, CEO of EvergreenHealth, said in a press release.
The post Transactions: Regence BlueShield Teams Up with DispatchHealth; Amedisys Enters New Market appeared first on Home Health Care News.
