AmeriHealth D.C., the largest Medicaid managed care organization in the District announced it will offer its members a personalized digital mobile platform aimed at improving medication adherence for asthma patients. The platform called HealthNHandSM launched by pharmacy benefits manager PerformRx was developed conjunction with MEMOTEXT, a health care technology company, is designed to improve adherence to treatment regimens.
How It Works
HealthNHand works on nearly any mobile phone with web browsing and SMS capabilities.Participants receive reminders to take their asthma medications and complete questionnaires about their health status via interactive voice response, short message service (SMS) or email. HealthNHand’s personalized information, targeted support and daily air quality forecasts, generated for each user based on results from the questionnaires, help asthma patients become more aware and engaged in their own self-care. Users may log on to the HealthNHand site to view their own data and progress.
“Through HealthNHand, we are able to meet members where they are ─ on their smartphones and other devices ─ with programs that they, themselves, can customize. It’s an innovative way to extend our care management and empower members with a tool to help them manage their own care,” said Karen Dale, market president, AmeriHealth District of Columbia.
According to a recent study by Mobile Future, medical text message reminders to patients can raise patient adherence by 10 percent and predicts that by 2018, the mobile health industry’s ability to connect with patients has the potential to save $36M in health care costs in the United States. PerformRx is considering expanding HealthNHand to other markets in 2015.
