Recently, I had a long and productive meeting with our partner, HMS. We agreed on an aggressive timeline to bring our solutions to the US government sector.
Larry Walsh, the director of the Healthcare IT Portfolio at HMS Technologies, is an incredible thought leader. In the past, he’s merged companies working in healthcare information technology (HIT) with amazing results. His experience spans more than 15 years. He’s even worked in healthcare in Asia, a market in which we’re expanding at a pace faster than expected.
HMS also has more than 15 years’ experience delivering HIT solutions to US federal government agencies. They’ve led more than 45 projects as the prime contractor in support of the US Veterans Administration (VA). They’ve also supported the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Justice, and Education, just to name a few.
In short, HMS has a strong team and exceptional HIT experience. We’re happy to give them the full strength of Solve.Care’s platform, which will ramp up their ability to deliver to their US federal government clients. Through our partnership, Solve.Care’s blockchain platform will be included in HMS’ federal HIT initiatives. And our objectives perfectly align: reducing costs and improving care.
HMS is one of only two contractors who provide telehealthcare to US veterans under the US Department of VA Telehealth Services. And they’re the prime contractor for the VA Rural Health program. US military veterans living in rural areas find it harder to access care, an issue that affects anyone residing outside of urban areas. The VA compiled some statistics on rural veteran healthcare challenges:
There are 4.7 million rural and highly rural Veterans with 2.8 million enrolled in VA.
- 58 percent of rural Veterans are enrolled in the VA health care system — significantly higher than the 37 percent enrollment rate of urban Veterans
- 18 percent of rural enrolled Veterans have at least one service connected condition
- 6 percent of enrolled rural Veterans are women
- 15 percent of enrolled rural Veterans are minorities
- 52 percent earn less than $35,000 annually
- 27 percent do not access the internet at home
Here’s an award-winning video the VA put together showing how their Office of Rural Health is trying to remove barriers to care. And HMS’ telehealth and other initiatives are the types of programs that make it easier and simpler for people to access healthcare.
There’s no need to imagine what the difference Solve.Care’s platform will be able to help HMS make in delivering care to this population and other consumers of US government agency programs. Using Solve.Care Care.Wallets, care coordinators and providers will be able to administer and manage healthcare benefits with a more patient-centric approach, efficiently and with better health outcomes. Patients will be able to arrange appointments quickly and the transportation to get there; receive prescriptions and refills; and access and use a host of other benefits, depending on their programs.
In addition, patients who use Care.Wallet will be able to report symptoms immediately, which providers can see instantly and rapidly react to, ensuring patients get the care they need, when they need it, to prevent exacerbation of health conditions. Check out our video on how Care.Wallets work, featuring an amazingly easy-to-understand storybook format.
We’ve implemented our blockchain healthcare solution — not in theory, not in testing — but in real life.
Solve.Care’s Care.Wallet for Physician is already allowing users at Arizona Care Network (ACN) to coordinate care and administer and access benefits better and, not just faster, but instantly. ACN continues to loudly praise the increase in provider performance, care coordination, and cost savings (check out what I shared earlier about their win at NAACOS for implementing Solve.Care platform.)
We’ve already made very exciting progress in a very short period of time. The partnership between Solve.Care and HMS Technologies has the potential to redefine how US government programs operate, in terms of delivering better care and better value to clients, all while reducing fraud, waste, and abuse.
Originally posted on Medium
