Dive Brief:
- Two Richmond, Virginia companies are partnering to reduce hospital readmissions by using technology to monitor patients at their homes.
- Startup C3 Nexus monitors patients by equipping them with technology that sends automatic updates back to company, so that care providers can track patients' health data and follow up with them through phone calls or in-home visits.
- Home Instead says the partnership could expand to their more than 800 franchises across the US if it succeeds in Richmond. The service costs patients about $1,500 per month, and is not covered by most insurers. The partnership currently serves about 325 patients in Virginia.
Dive Insight:
The scope of the program could reach beyond reducing readmissions: While C3's initial goal was to focus on patients who had just been released from a hospital, it says it is now expanding in an effort to prevent initial hospital visits.
The company says it wants to help patients recognize potential health problems early—especially those facing heart disease, diabetes and other conditions that make them high-risk for hospitalizations.
"Partnerships are a big key to our success," C3 Nexus president Nuno Valentine told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "We are trying to find like-minded people who are taking care of patients."
Given the expense of the service and the fact that readmissions are correlated with socioeconomic factors, however, it seems unlikely that this service will have a meaningful impact on readmission rates where reductions are most needed: In the low-income.