CareLinx, now a part of Sharecare, has had an eye on Medicare Advantage (MA) opportunities ever since in-home care services became a benefit under MA plans. The company is now seeing the fruits of its labor.
On Tuesday, Atlanta, Georgia-based Sharecare (Nasdaq: SHCR) announced that more than 400 MA plans are utilizing CareLinx to scale in-home care supplemental benefit programs in 2022.
“When the new supplemental benefits came out in 2019, we were very vocal that this is a strategy of the company,” Sherwin Sheik, head of home health at Sharecare, told Home Health Care News. “We started working, on a small scale, with health plans across the country, including some of the largest health plans.”
Sharecare is a digital health company. Its virtual platform helps people manage all their health needs in one place, including the ability to access health records and other information.
In August, Sharecare purchased CareLinx in a $65 million acquisition. The Burlingame, California-based company is a home-based care platform that includes a network of more than 450,000 caregivers. CareLinx partners with health plans and providers, and serves MA members.
Sharecare expects CareLinx revenue to grow organically by roughly 75% in 2022.
“The accelerated demand we are experiencing for CareLinx by Sharecare is a strong foundational element of our fiscal 2022 outlook, particularly as health care continues to move homeward,” Jeff Arnold, chairman and CEO of Sharecare, said in a press statement.
Over the years, Sheik has seen a continuous scaling of in-home care supplemental benefits. More recently, the COVID-19 emergency has accelerated this.
As a result, CareLinx has seen a 1,000% year-over-year increase in MA plan penetration. Currently, the company’s offerings are available to 1.5 million MA members through their health plans.
Sheik believes that one of the company’s value-add to its MA partners is the ability to identify gaps in care.
“We truly operate as an extension of clinical teams,” he said. “We’re going in and helping the members with all their needs, from socialization to meals, mobility, transportation, bathing and grooming. While we’re in the home, we’re capturing over 170 data points. We’re building a [social determinants of health] map and conducting [health risk assessments], truly identifying real gaps of care, and then working to close those gaps of care and help members stay safe in their homes longer.”
Ultimately, working in the home positions CareLinx to identify these care gaps, but also allows the company to determine what additional support services will help reduce inpatient utilization, according to Sheik.
“Yes, you know this patient has multiple chronic conditions, comorbidities, that she’s diabetic, but it’s different when you go into her house,” he said. “You may see she lives in a low-lit two-story apartment, and there’s fall risk throughout the home. Maybe you look at what’s in her cupboards, and she has access to poor nutrition. There may be evidence of undiagnosed conditions like depression or substance abuse. It’s very different when you get that intimate insight into what’s going on in the home.”
