Humana and Philips Team Up for Connected Care

AMSTERDAM (December 5, 2019)—Royal Philips, a provider health technology, today announced a collaboration with Humana Inc., a health and well-being company in the U.S., to help improve care and health outcomes for select high-risk Medicare Advantage members. Through an integrated approach, Humana has implemented two programs that leverage Philips’ medical alert services and remote member monitoring (RMM) solutions to actively monitor at-risk Medicare Advantage members, encourage more timely interventions and improve care delivery.

“Our goal is to continue to find ways to help our Medicare Advantage members stay longer and safer in their homes,” said Susan Diamond, Humana’s Home Business Segment president. “We believe our work with Philips will help offer our members and their caregivers more in-home support and help them to stay engaged and focused on prevention.”

In the face of rising health care costs, payers are increasingly realizing the value of population health management, and seeking partnerships with proven experts in the space to help identify vulnerable populations to deliver meaningful insights into patient conditions. Philips connected care solutions will help Humana provide a seamless care experience by connecting services, analytics and devices to help increase patient engagement and access to care. Leveraging Philips’ established solutions, Humana’s care teams can have line-of-sight into members’ wellbeing to help proactively deliver appropriate interventions.

“Forward-thinking companies like Humana are realizing how deploying population health management can enable the industry to influence high-risk, high-cost populations at scale to help them lead healthier lives,” said Carla Kriwet, chief business leader Connected Care, Philips. “As the industry moves beyond traditional care delivery in the hospital to health delivery that starts and ends in the home, Philips’ population health management solutions can enable strong collaboration between care recipients, providers and payers, connecting care and empowering patients.”

Enabling timely, seamless care for seniors

Humana is identifying members who are at-risk and offering them Philips Lifeline medical alert service, including AutoAlert, Lifeline’s proven fall detection technology, supported by Philips’ CareSage predictive analytics. Early referrals of patients with chronic conditions, and those at risk of falls, can help enable timely care and interventions, while simultaneously improving clinical outcomes. By providing seniors with 24/7 remote access to trained care specialists who can dispatch the right kind of help, this program will help support Humana’s at-risk Medicare Advantage members in their wish to age-in-place. It can also help reduce unnecessary and costly hospital readmissions, which in turn can help lead to overall improved patient experience, higher quality of care and more efficient resource utilization. Philips Lifeline is available on select Humana Medicare Advantage plans offered nationwide.

Research shows 57% of Medicare patients are released from the hospital without any direct monitoring by a health care professional, contributing to an annual cost of unnecessary readmissions of $17 billion for Medicare patients alone. Philips CareSage predictive analytics, which collects and analyzes data from multiple sources including Philips Lifeline, provides care teams with a line-of-sight into seniors’ wellbeing upon discharge when the risk of readmission is high. By identifying patients who are at risk for emergency transport in an upcoming 30-day period, predictive analytics can help identify early intervention opportunities and thereby enable the delivery of proactive care to help reduce avoidable emergency admissions.

Activating connected care for CHF patients

The lack of touchpoints with congestive heart failure (CHF) patients outside of a traditional healthcare environment makes managing these members difficult, creating a barrier to timely and effective interventions, and contributing to the $30 billion CHF patients cost the industry nationwide each year. Through the Philips collaboration, Humana has deployed Philips remote member monitoring solution and its connected measurement devices to select CHF members, allowing care managers to monitor and understand meaningful changes in a member’s condition. By giving these members access to advanced virtual care, Philips will empower CHF patients to actively monitor their health from the comfort of their own home.

Humana is identifying a pilot group of members with severe CHF. Philips is providing members with kits that include an interactive tablet that syncs data from connected measurement devices via wireless technology. These devices, including a weight scale, blood pressure monitor and pulse oximeter, allow members to self-manage their condition, and share health information with their care manager daily. This data will be utilized to support Humana care teams in making informed and proactive care decisions with the pilot group in an effort to help to reduce unnecessary readmissions.

Philips Lifeline and Philips’ remote monitoring offerings are part of the company’s broader Population Health Management portfolio, which provides a comprehensive and proactive healthcare delivery strategy to build connected populations for ongoing care. Philips’ innovative care pathway solutions intertwine services, analytics and devices, leveraging consumer and care experience, to help drive improved enrollment, patient compliance and quality outcomes.

Visit usa.philips.com for more information.