Tomorrow Health — a relatively new startup seeking to become an Amazon-like service for home health providers — has partnered with Geisinger Health Plan (GHP). The goal of the partnership: to give patients better access to home durable medical equipment (DME) and supplies.
Back by venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, Tomorrow Health and its digital marketplace deliver medical supplies and equipment directly into the patients’ homes. Currently, the company operates in 24 states.
Meanwhile, GHP — a part of the regional Geisinger Health System — serves roughly 540,000 members across Pennsylvania. It has a provider network of over 29,000 doctors and 100 hospitals.
Through the partnership, GHP members will have their home medical equipment and supplies orders coordinated by Tomorrow Health. Using a set of objective criteria, Tomorrow Health routes member’s orders to the most appropriate suppliers within GHP’s network.
“We guide the patient journey end-to-end,” co-founder and CEO Vijay Kedar told Home Health Care News. “We help them identify the products and supplies best suited for their clinical needs. We help them navigate their insurance reimbursement and, ultimately, close the loop, ensuring they receive the products they need on a timely and efficient basis.”
Tomorrow Health also provides support and education to ensure patients remain adherent to their equipment, Kedar noted.
In terms of reimbursement, Tomorrow Health is compensated for managing and coordinating the medical equipment and supplies needs of members, while suppliers also bill GHP directly.
GHP has made strides in the home-based care space through various programs, such as Geisinger at Home, the company’s mail-order pharmacy and its comprehensive telehealth program., Partnering with Tomorrow Health now allows GHP to beef up on the medical equipment side.
“As a single point of contact for our patients’ home medical equipment needs, Tomorrow Health will improve the support and quality of care that GHP members receive, during what is typically a very challenging time for members and their caregivers,” Kurt J. Wrobel, president of GHP and EVP of Geisinger Insurance Operations, said in a statement. “We’re pleased to drive the future of home-based care with Tomorrow Health as our partner.”
For Tomorrow Health, teaming up with GHP was an opportunity to work with a company Kedar considers a pioneer when it comes to care delivery and home-based care.
“They really made a commitment to more holistic and more effective care in the home,” he said. “The genesis of our partnership was a recognition that there was kind of a missing link in their home-based care ecosystem with medical equipment and supplies.”
Since launching in 2020 after a seed round of $7.5 million, Tomorrow Health has formed partnerships with more than 125 health plans and hospitals at the regional and national levels.
Throughout the COVID-19 emergency, the company has seen a spike in the demand for home medical equipment and supplies.
“We saw the second wave of the COVID pandemic in Q4 of last year and Q1 of this year,” Kedar said. “That has manifested in hospital censuses being filled and maxed out, an increased level of patients being discharged with needs for medical equipment and supplies. We’ve seen a heightened level of need for respiratory equipment and supplies, from oxygen and ventilators, to respiratory supplies as well as mobility equipment and other types of associated supplies.”
Overall, the U.S. market size of respiratory devices was an estimated $6.2 billion in 2018, according to industry statistics.
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