What You Should Know:
- Health insurer UnitedHealthcare has donated $11M in grants to nonprofit organizations across 11 states.
- These grants are part of our Empowering Health program focused on expanding access to care and addressing the social determinants of health (SDoH) for people in underserved communities. These grants assist individuals and families experiencing challenges from food insecurity, social isolation and behavioral health issues, and support local health
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UnitedHealthcare
At-Home Testing Is The Future, But Lab APIs Are Stuck In The Past
The rise of telemedicine and virtual care options have primed at-home testing to make a significant impact on the future of healthcare. 70% of today’s medical decisions depend on laboratory test results, but lagging lab APIs hinder the widespread launch of remote diagnostics.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a major increase in telemedicine usage, including a 154% increase in telehealth visits during the last week of March 2020 alone. Both patients and doctors
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Lynx Launches with $17.5M for API-Connected Healthcare Payments
What You Should Know:
- Lynx, a Boston-based API-connected healthcare payments, banking, and e-commerce platform announced today that it has emerged from stealth with $17.5M in equity financing led by Obvious Ventures and .406 Ventures with participation from Frist Cressey Ventures. Other investors include Winter Street Ventures (an investment subsidiary of Commonwealth Care Alliance), Shields Capital, and Huntington Avenue Ventures.
- Lynx’s goal is to introduce modern fintech to
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HLTH21: UnitedHealthcare Launches Virtual-First Health Plan, NavigateNOW
What You Should Know:
- UnitedHealthcare today announced the launch of a new virtual-first health plan called NavigateNOW designed to provide people with a personalized virtual care team to provide medical and behavioral health services with a seamless hand-off for in-person treatment if needed
- Through this new health plan, eligible UnitedHealthcare members will be able to receive various types of care, including wellness, routine, chronic condition management, urgent
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Hurdle Secures $5M for Digital Mental Health Platform for People of Color
What You Should Know:
- Washington, D.C.-based Hurdle raises $5M in seed funding to accelerate its digital mental health platform for people of color.
- Hurdle aims to provide an innovative teletherapy solution for employers and insurers; aims to remove barriers to mental health care for People of Color by rooting its services in evidence-based methods of cultural humility.
Hurdle (formerly Henry Health), a Washington, D.C.-based innovative digital mental health platform company,
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UnitedHealth Rolls Out Employer Virtual Primary Care Plan
What You Should Know:
- UnitedHealthcare is rolling out a virtual primary care plan for employers that will be powered by telehealth platform Amwell, CNBC first reports.
- The virtual primary care plan will allow patients access
to physicians with low or no co-pays for routine care via phone or computer.
- The virtual primary care program will be available for employers in 11 states including Colorado, Texas, and Maryland, as well as Washington, DC.
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Walmart to Offer Medicare Insurance Plans During 2020 Open Enrollment
What You Should Know:
- Walmart announced it will begin selling Medicare
insurance plans during this year’s annual enrollment period, Oct. 15 through
Dec. 7.
Today, Walmart
announced the launch of Walmart
Insurance Services, LLC, a licensed insurance brokerage, which will assist
people with enrolling in insurance plans—and simplify what’s historically been
a cumbersome, confusing process. Walmart Insurance Services will begin selling
Medicare insurance plans during this year’s Annual
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Amwell and Cigna Ranks High in Telehealth Patient Satisfaction, J.D. Power Finds
What You Should Know:
- Amwell ranks highest among direct to consumer brands
and Cigna ranks highest among health plans for telehealth patient satisfaction,
according to the J.D. Power 2020 U.S. Telehealth Satisfaction Study
- Though telehealth has been pitched as a solution to
improve access to healthcare for everyone, more than half (52%) of telehealth
users say they encountered at least one barrier that made it difficult to use
telehealth.
Patient satisfaction with
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UnitedHealthcare Dental Rolls Out New Teledentistry Option
What You Should Know:
- New offering is part of UnitedHealthcare Dental’s
comprehensive response to COVID-19, which also includes financial support for
customers and enhanced payments for network providers.
- Dental care ranks among the most frequently avoidable
ER visits, with the emergence of teledentistry providing a key resource to help
people make more informed decisions about where to go for care and avoid
potential exposure risks with in-person care facilities.
With
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How Social Determinants of Health Will Impact the Future of Benefit Coverages
Do you have access to healthy foods, transportation to a doctor, high-speed internet for telemed appointments, or a roof over your head? These are assumptions that most of us take for granted, and are not the questions that insurers usually take into consideration. But, as they look to increase member outcomes and foster long-term customer loyalty, considering the changing needs of many consumers in the face of today’s current affairs, it’s time they did.
In fact, forward-looking health plans
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