Recent Market Trends Provide Lessons Learned & Opportunities to Further Innovate Virtual Primary Care
When Amazon announced it would end its virtual health service, it signaled a pause to the leading e-retailer’s attempt to upend America’s health-care marketplace. There is wide consensus among industry observers that Amazon is merely shifting the strategy from de novo to acquisitive. They will likely finalize transactions that position the offering to be more responsive to market demands and resources needed to get the job done.
By its own admission, ‘Amazon Care’ simply did not meet the expectations of other companies. However, this experience provides all stakeholders with several “lessons learned” and opens opportunities for Amazon and others to further innovate.
Valuable Lessons Learned from Amazon
• Innovating in healthcare requires a lot of vision and experience
• Greater clarity of the problems and solutions will be required
• Companies are seeking broader, complete solutions
Reinforcing the “Last Mile of Care”
CVS Health’s acquisition of Signify Health is another positive sign for the industry since it reinforces the retailer’s push to address the “last mile of care”: the link between the patient and the healthcare network touch point – where care is delivered. It describes the entire healthcare system of people, services, goods and organizations.
By acquiring Signify’s home health platform, CVS leaders say they gain a foundation for future expansion of home health care delivery. These capabilities will enable them to design new care models that combine existing resources with Signify’s services, analytics and technology to deliver on improved access to care. Acquisitions of this size and scope also raise awareness of putting consumers at the center of care: improving patient engagement, patient outcomes and care coordination for stakeholders across the health care system.
This focus on patient-centered care is a welcome addition to the marketplace and aligns with Recuro’s emphasis on advancing its health care services strategy to create an approach that accelerates the transition to value-based care. Driving value instead of simply building transaction volume, we are all seeking to enhance the connection to consumers in their home or at work and enable providers to better address patient needs as we enhance the health care experience.
As CVS and others enhance their connection to consumers in the home, it is also an opportunity for our team to profile its efforts to redefining and enhancing the health care experience. Our Digital Medical Home and its integrated solutions for Virtual Primary Care, Behavioral Health, home lab testing and genomics all point in same direction — better access to care.
It is this type of thoughtful leadership that supports real progress in serving patients’ needs wherever they are located — at home or at work — to strengthen access and improve outcomes. We are all pulling towards these shared goals.
What Do These Market Trends Mean For Recuro?
We welcome this level of market activity as it reinforces our commitment to advancing digital health and achieving health equity for all Americans through expanded access to care. It reinforces Recuro’s commitment to continually expand its approach to integrating virtual solutions, increase the size and scope of its provider network and introduce new product offerings that meet the needs of health plan payers, employer enterprises and benefits consultants.
Recuro is implementing an approach that works, moving from reactive “sick care” to proactive preventative care, engaging patients with virtual primary care services that not only integrate urgent care and chronic condition management but also behavioral health, home lab testing, innovative genomic testing and more. We are driving engagement and activation, changing health behaviors and eliminating the status quo of simply reacting to problems with a product vs. introducing a solution that effectively addresses the real issues.
We look forward to more announcements of this nature – and will be making some of our own that will resonate throughout the marketplace.
About Recuro Health
Recuro has developed a Digital Medical Home™ to lower costs and improve outcomes. Recuro enables easy connectivity to virtual care, including primary and urgent care, behavioral health, at-home lab testing, genomics testing, as well as a suite of supplemental benefits spanning pharmacy, care management, and care navigation all on one platform. Visit www.recurohealth.com to learn more about our virtual solutions.
