The Future of Navigated Care [Q&A with HealthJoy’s Chief Medical Officer]

Earlier this summer, we announced that HealthJoy is partnering with Teladoc to enhance virtual care offerings for members. This exciting new partnership will officially launch on January 1, 2023.

Today, we're talking to Patricia Pechter, MD, HealthJoy's Chief Medical Officer, about the state of healthcare and how this partnership will allow us to amplify our mission and deliver members the best product possible.

What barriers do you see between patients and convenient, high-quality care?

Two major barriers come to mind.

The first is that patients don't know the wide array of virtual care options available to them.

It's no surprise that we saw a significant shift to virtual care during the pandemic. According to McKinsey & Company, telehealth usage has increased 38 times from the pre-COVID-19 baseline. But while there are a lot of virtual solutions out there, people still might not know how to fully use them or how to access them. Many patients still only find their way to virtual care for typical urgent care-type needs. The world of virtual care is expanding rapidly beyond this, and there are so many options of which people may not even be aware. Whether that's using virtual care for mental health needs, diabetes care, blood pressure, primary care, or whatever that need is, until we introduce someone to it, they might not have thought to go there.

The second barrier, which I'm sure hits home to many patients and employers alike, is that once you know a virtual care option is available, how do you know whether it’s reputable and effective? Quality is a priority for everyone —57% of employers in a recent Business Group on Health survey were concerned about this issue—so addressing this component of virtual care will be really key to establishing its success as programs and scope continue to expand.

Now that we touched on those barriers, can you describe how HealthJoy is addressing them?

Making people aware of all their options

It's beneficial to have a comprehensive virtual care suite wrapped within HealthJoy’s navigation service, which people are already turning to when they need to find care. We can amplify the impact of virtual care by boosting awareness and actually directing people toward those available benefits.

We're helping people navigate both the brick and mortar world and the virtual world because they're both very valid, complimentary ways of receiving care. We've already done this with things like mental health services, and our musculoskeletal care program. And we've seen such success with getting the right people linked into that care that it made sense for us to continue to expand our suite of clinical offerings.

Accessing high quality, reputable care

HealthJoy partners with industry leaders in the Virtual Care space. That’s why we are so excited to be partnering with Teladoc, a world-renowned service with proven results. With an integrated member experience, members can more easily access care they can trust.

How does our partnership with Teladoc help us to better serve our members?

HealthJoy has always been focused on serving the needs of all our members, not just those with complex cases or high medical costs. We want this partnership to be highly impactful across our entire membership base.

There's this great combination of addressing the needs of high-cost claimants, and being able to engage with people who rarely use the health services available to them. We can address high-cost claimants through proactive engagement, chronic care services and second opinion support to make their experience smoother and more effective. And we can offer things like urgent care and virtual primary care for those who may not even see a doctor because it's inconvenient to travel there. Either way, we're able to address their needs.

We think this kind of program is a major improvement from the one-size-fits-all system that existed in the past. This clinical suite can address access, convenience, and affordability issues across the board for a broad array of clinical needs.

Any final thoughts on the partnership?

I'm excited about this partnership! By teaming together, we can build out a robust clinical suite with a wide range of offerings that helps lots of people receive the care they need, and ultimately, aligns with our vision of making it easier to be healthy and well.