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The ability to sell to consumers may be an advantage as Best Buy builds up its virtual care business, said Miriam Sznycer-Taub, director of aging population research at the Washington D.C.-based research firm Advisory Board. She said the company has sold connected fitness and health devices, which means it wouldn’t be a huge leap for people receiving at-home care.
“Best Buy is working to develop relationships and build up their customer base on the provider and the health plan side,” Sznycer-Taub said. “And their ability to sell into consumers should help because they’re a very well-known brand.”
The virtual care business combines capabilities from the GreatCall (which was renamed Lively) and Current Health acquisitions. Through Lively, patients receiving healthcare at home are connected to nurses 24/7. Through Current, different remote monitoring and connected devices are integrated into a single clinical platform that’s monitored by health systems providing care at home services.
The business also supplies technology, such as its remote monitoring and medication management devices, to patients engaged in at-home care programs through hospitals and health insurance companies. The company also provides support on the product technology as it has done traditionally for consumer electronics through Geek Squad.
In its third-quarter earnings call, Barry said Best Buy had struck partnerships with NYU Langone Health, Mount Sinai Health and Geisinger Health. Geisinger is launching a Geek Squad pilot service that will help set up equipment and educate consumers on the technology. Along with health systems and insurers, Langat said Best Buy works with pharma companies to deliver medication at the home.
During the earnings call, executives noted that revenue contribution for the virtual care service is small and would take time to ramp up.
Long lead times are common when selling into health systems that are unfamiliar territory for a consumer-based company like Best Buy. Kaganoff said the company should lean into its consumer roots even more than it has already.
“They’re good at having a retail space and having people come in to learn about certain technologies,” Kaganoff said. “Even if they didn’t open a clinic, maybe they could open an information center to teach people about the different technologies around healthcare.”
Reimbursement uncertainty
The company’s healthcare presence comes as providers and insurance companies, primarily through their Medicare Advantage plans, invest in care at home, Sznycer-Taub said.
“Best Buy Health has found themselves squarely in the intersection of those two trends,” Sznycer-Taub said. “And they can really leverage their background of providing good customer support, being a trusted name to consumers and having the technology to work directly with health systems and plans.”
One big challenge for Best Buy and others in the care-at-home technology space is uncertainty around reimbursement. Reimbursement rates for the Current Procedural Terminology codes of remote patient monitoring are in flux as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently proposed a 12% cut in reimbursement.
Also, the acute hospital at home waiver is tied to the COVID-19 public health emergency. When those waivers run out, organizations including UMass Memorial (which is a customer of Current Health) said they might have to run a scaled back hospital-at-home program.
“We’re not in a situation where we could continue down the same route without the waivers and without the reimbursement,” said Justin T. Precourt, chief nursing officer at UMass Memorial. “So, we are looking at alternative models, which would be a bit different from what we’ve been doing.”
Sznycer-Taub said there is enough momentum in Medicare Advantage to build a reimbursement strategy for hospital-at-home programs. Many health systems are lobbying for an extension in the hospital-at-home waiver or the chance to try out a permanent model through Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.
“We’ve been working with a number of payers to serve them with our urgent response services, health and safety services and with social care programs, along with the remote patient monitoring,” Langat said. “We think there’s a lot of opportunity.”
This story first appeared in Digital Health Business & Technology.
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