New Jersey-based Hackensack Meridian Health is teaming up with K Health to launch a new 24/7 virtual primary care service to provide easier access to the health system's clinicians.
The health system said the partnership with digital health company K Health is a critical move to respond to the shift in how patients access and how health systems deliver care.
Working with K Health, Hackensack Meridian will launch an app called HMH 24/7 that integrates virtual and in-person care to meet patients' primary care needs—sick, chronic and preventive care. The health system's network includes 18 hospitals and more than 500 patient care locations staffed by 35,000 team members and 7,000 physicians.
K Health works with other health systems, like Cedars-Sinai, to use AI-driven solutions to scale primary care. Last year, Cedars-Sinai announced a partnership to develop an app, Cedars-Sinai Connect, to make virtual care providers available around the clock for urgent issues and same-day appointments for primary care.
Hackensack Meridian plans to launch the app later this fall. HMH 24/7 will be available to those with insurance accepted by Hackensack Meridian Medical Group.
Using K Health's AI chatbot technology, HMH 24/7 will streamline clinical processes to automate intake and data entry before connecting patients with a virtual provider. Physicians use the same electronic medical record system as care teams in the health system's brick-and-mortar clinics to enable better continuity of care, executives said. Clinicians will have a panoramic view of a patient’s entire health profile, enabling high-quality, data-driven decisions, according to the health system.
“Our partnership with K Health couldn’t be coming at a better time, as the clear shift in primary care is uncovering the need for hybrid models that seamlessly connect virtual and in-person care across the care continuum,” said Robert Garrett, CEO at Hackensack Meridian Health, in a statement. “We know patients want virtual care, but understanding how to deliver that in the context of a larger health system is where HMH 24/7 stands us apart.”
While virtual care services are not a new offering, the integration between virtual care and in-person care enables smooth patient transitions within the Hackensack Meridian Health network, whether for lab tests, screening exams or more complex care, executives said. The aim is to offer a more connected, personalized primary care experience.
“The new reality of primary care—regardless of modality—is that it needs to be deeply embedded into a health system’s care delivery model to be effective, and that’s exactly what the innovators at Hackensack Meridian Health have enlisted us to do,” said Ran Shaul, co-founder and chief product officer at K Health, in a statement. “K Health’s expert clinical AI solution is already live in major health systems across the country, relieving clinical burnout, reducing administrative burden, increasing appointment availability, and improving outcomes through data-driven decision making.”
K Health aims to reinvent primary care by providing patients remote access to healthcare services through their smartphones. Launched in 2016 and rolled out into the U.S. market in 2018, K Health developed a chat function that uses artificial intelligence to suggest potential diagnoses for consumers who enter symptoms and also takes into account the user's medical history, age and gender. Its platform sifts through the data of millions of patients and suggests a medical condition and will connect patients with a doctor or nurse, if needed.
K Health connects patients with primary care, including chronic condition management and preventive care as well as urgent care and mental health services for anxiety and depression. Further, K Health offers a medical weight management service.
It also built out an AI "copilot" that interacts with patients, collects information, integrates with electronic medical records and assembles insights to improve doctors' clinical decision-making.
The company, named one of Fierce Healthcare's Fierce 15 of 2023, is focused on building out hospital and health system partnerships.
In July, the company raised $50 million in an equity funding round to build out its AI-powered medical services and fuel its growth. The equity found, which the company said was oversubscribed, was led by Marcelo Claure’s Claure Group and was backed by Pablo Legorreta, founder and CEO of Royalty Pharma. Existing investors Mangrove Capital Partners, Valor Equity Partners and Atreides Management LP also participated.
K Health has raised $380 million to date, Shaul told Fierce Healthcare two months ago.
Three years ago, K Health inked a collaboration with Mayo Clinic through the Mayo Clinic Platform, the hospital's digital health and AI project. The two organizations said they would focus on developing clinical decision support tools for Mayo Clinic patients and doctors and virtual care models to help patients receive autonomous care.
K Health operates in 48 states and, along with its health system collaborations, also partners with UnitedHealthcare and Elevance Health, formerly known as Anthem. The company also provides a direct-to-consumer service.
The company's platform works with about 2,000 patients a day, Shaul said. Ten million people have interacted with K Health’s AI, and 3.1 million patients have completed a chat with a doctor or a nurse visit via K Health, CEO and co-founder Allon Bloch told Forbes a year ago.