Telehealth has proven its worth this year as it allows patients to see doctors in the comfort of their own home. This trend hints at a shift in how people see their doctors, and health insurance providers have taken notice.
Major health insurance company Humana announced Wednesday that it’s partnering with healthtech startup Heal. Through this partnership, Humana will be able to provide Heal’s services to its customers, as well as expand Heal’s footprint to new markets. Humana is also investing $100 million in Heal as part of this deal.
Heal uses technology to match patients to doctors and provide at-home doctor visits. The Heal platform also makes it easy to follow up these visits with telehealth care and remote monitoring. Through the Heal platform, doctors are able to provide primary care visits, telemedicine help, psychology assessments and more. Heal has initiated over 200,000 home visits in its first five years, as well as remote monitoring and followups.
Although Heal is based in Los Angeles, this new partnership will allow the company to expand its services to several new markets including Chicago, Charlotte and Houston. As a result, the company is currently hiring for certain medical roles in these cities. Heal currently operates in California, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
The company notes that it accepts Medicare payment, pointing out that at-home visits and remote monitoring are especially useful for elderly patients.
“Today, the vision my co-founder, Dr. Renee Dua, and I had over five years ago took a huge step forward,” Heal CEO and co-founder Nick Desai said in a statement. “Humana’s investment and strategic partnership are an irreplaceable catalyst to make doctor house call-based primary care an affordable and effective reality for all Americans. We’re honored to work with the entire Humana team so that, one day soon, all of us can open our doors to better care.”
