Dive Brief:
- Virtual care company Included Health and at-home acute care provider DispatchHealth have agreed to a partnership that will pair Included’s virtual primary care platform with Dispatch’s in-home support teams.
- Included’s primary care clinicians and care teams will be able to coordinate with Dispatch’s medical practitioners — including physical assistants, emergency-trained medical technicians and nurse practitioners — to coordinate at-home services for patients following virtual appointments. Dispatch clinicians will be able to provide services like EKGs, intravenous lines and nebulizers to patients in addition to higher acuity services such as catheters.
- The move comes as care pivots increasingly to home settings, after the COVID-19 pandemic normalized at-home care and organizations look to reduce healthcare costs.
Dive Insight:
The partnership between Included and Dispatch will target both common and complex illness, with the intent of reducing unnecessary emergency department visits and better managing care for patients with chronic conditions. It also will pair Included’s health plan and employer clients with Dispatch’s multi-state footprint.
“Working with DispatchHealth is an incredible extension to our service, one that will remove the friction, travel and stress associated with visiting a resource-strained emergency room or urgent care center and allow our members to be treated and recover in an often preferred setting — the home,” Included Chief Health Officer Ami Parekh said in a statement.
Healthcare companies and hospitals have looked combine digital health and in-home primary care offerings as the industry pivots to increasingly providing care at-home to save on expenses. Amazon attempted to develop its own at-home, virtual-first offering through Amazon Care before announcing that it would shutter the unit in August after acquiring OneMedical.
The Dispatch and Included partnership is unique as patients will be able to access at-home care services directly from Included’s virtual care platform, the companies said.
“With advancements in technology, high acuity care can be delivered in the home at a much lower cost with an enhanced care experience and improved outcomes,” Dispatch co-founder and CEO Mark Prather said in a statement.
The at-home partnership comes two years after Included Health was rebranded following a 2021 merger between virtual care company Doctor on Demand and clinical navigator Grand Rounds. The move came after the newly combined Doctor on Demand and Grand Rounds acquired a care navigation platform for the LGBTQ community, also called Included Health.
