Dive Brief:
- Best Buy has inked another deal with a health system to co-create home care products and programs — this time, with Boston-based nonprofit Mass General Brigham.
- The partnership will start by using Best Buy’s technology to scale and support Mass General Brigham’s existing hospital-at-home program, called Home Hospital, before moving to product development, the companies announced Wednesday.
- It’s the tech retailer’s third such deal with a health system to jointly develop home care services, with the eventual goal of selling them to other healthcare organizations. Best Buy notched similar partnerships with Geisinger and Atrium Health earlier this year.
Dive Insight:
Hospital-at-home programs allow patients to receive acute-level care in the home, shaving down costs while expanding medical access.
Widespread adoption of hospital-at-home models has historically been curtailed by physician uncertainty and patchwork reimbursement policies. However, government flexibilities for hospital-at-home programs enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic have caused investment in the models to explode.
Mass General Brigham says its Home Hospital program is one of the largest acute home-based care models in the U.S.
The program, which serves patients with conditions like heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, results in lower mortality rates, fewer hospital readmissions and a shorter length of stay, according to the academic medical system.
Along with Home Hospital, Best Buy will also support Mass General Brigham’s home health business in New England, which offers non-acute services to injured or ill patients in their home, according to the release. The two will also offer scholarships for nursing, paramedic and digital technology students who choose the at-home care setting as their desired professional environment.
Best Buy has been increasingly active in healthcare as it angles to solidify itself as a valuable partner for hospitals and health plans looking for ways to help consumers manage their healthcare at home.
Best Buy first stepped into healthcare in 2018 when it acquired emergency response provider GreatCall for $800 million. In 2019, Best Buy purchased remote monitoring company Critical Signal Technologies, and late last year, the tech retailer invested in a logistics platform that coordinates in-home care.
Best Buy announced its first partnership with a major health system — North Carolina-based Atrium, part of Advocate Health — to co-develop hospital at home programming in March. In September, Best Buy announced a similar deal with Pennsylvania-based Geisinger.
A spokesperson for Best Buy declined to share whether the retailer is in talks with other systems on co-development deals, but said the company plans to work with “several health system partners” as demand for care at home grows. The spokesperson declined to share financial terms of the Mass Gen deal.
