Humana At Home Targets Dementia Care; Mavencare Partners with Minuteman Senior Services

Humana expands Seniorlink relationship

Insurance giant Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) and tech-enabled health services company Seniorlink are expanding their relationship.

Louisville, Kentucky-based Humana is one of the largest health companies in the U.S., both in terms of Medicare Advantage (MA) membership and in terms of associated provider organizations. Kindred at Home and Humana At Home, for example, are just two of the in-home care entities Humana operates. 

Meanwhile, Seniorlink — headquartered in Boston — is a technology company that builds care-collaboration solutions. As part of its mission, Seniorlink partners with risk-bearing provider and payer organization to augment existing care-management capabilities through tools leveraging human touch and technology.

Humana’s expanded relationship with Seniorlink will focus on providing further support to the insurer’s MA members diagnosed with dementia being served through Humana At Home. Through the Humana-Seniorlink arrangement, MA members and their caregivers will have access to a management program where they can receive dementia coaching and guidance.

Humana At Home cares for Humana Medicare Advantage members who have multiple chronic conditions, struggle with daily activities and who experience frequent hospitalizations.

“We’re excited to expand our collaboration with Seniorlink to offer coaching and support to those helping to care for our members living with dementia,” Cheri Greenfield La Tour, Humana SVP of home care operations, said in a statement. “We hope this additional level of support helps to alleviate the burden placed on these caregivers.”

Enrollment in Humana-Seniorlink program will begin in late November and initially total 500 caregivers.

Globally, a new case of dementia is diagnosed every 3 seconds, according to Alzheimer’s Disease International. The total estimated cost of worldwide dementia care is projected to exceed $2 trillion by 2030.

Mavencare announces new partnership

Mavencare — a home care technology company that supports older adults looking to age in place — is partnering with Minuteman Senior Services. A 45-year old nonprofit organization based in the Greater Boston Area, Minuteman Senior Services is a multi-service agency that provides a variety of care programs for seniors, adults with disabilities and caregivers.

Toronto-based Mavencare is a tech-driven, clinically focused personal home care company. In addition to Toronto, Mavencare currently operates in the New York and Boston markets, plus a handful of other Massachusetts locations.

Through the new partnership, residents in Minuteman’s footprint will now have access to Mavencare’s services.

“This partnership gives us the opportunity to expand our service area and work with a progressive organization that is passionate about providing high-quality care to older and disabled adults who wish to remain in their homes,” Dr. Adam Blackman, CEO and co-founder of Mavencare, said in a statement.

Mavencare’s payer sources include a mix of private-pay, managed care and other streams. Increasing consumer awareness and access to in-home care has been a priority for the company throughout 2019 — and a topic it recently explored in an October survey. 

Amedisys turns to nVoq

Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Amedisys (Nasdaq: AMED) is turning to nVoq — a provider of HIPAA-compliant speech recognition software — to help its caregivers quickly and accurately capture patient narratives at the point of care.

Boulder, Colorado-based nVoq provides SaaS-based speech recognition solutions to the entire health care sector, though it places a particular emphasis on the post-acute care segment. The technology company’s platform supports both mobile and office-based clinicians.

“Amedisys is committed to providing our caregivers with the right tools to offer the best possible care for our patients,” Amedisys COO Chris Gerard said in a statement. “We are excited to be a market leader in innovation by equipping our home health and hospice clinicians with nVoq’s medically relevant speech-to-text capability — improving the patient experience, clinician satisfaction and our business efficiencies.”

Improved efficiency across all areas of home health care will be key in 2020 after the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) takes effect.

The use of nVoq will likely play a role in Amedisys’s mitigation strategy.

As of Nov. 30, at least 60 Amedisys care centers have been in “PDGM test mode,” CEO and President Paul Kusserow explained during his company’s recent third-quarter earnings call.