Health Net, a Medi-Cal plan owned by Centene, is teaming with MedArrive to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to members, including those who are homebound.
Eligible members in the Los Angeles, Sacramento and Fresno markets in California can book a home visit at their convenience. A licensed and trained emergency medical technician or other healthcare professional will then administer the vaccine to them or any family member.
Health Net has reached out to tens of thousands of members who may not be vaccinated yet to encourage them to schedule the visits. MedArrive's professionals will also collaborate with the care managers at Health Net to identify potential gaps in care during the home visits.
Dan Trigub, CEO and co-founder of MedArrive, told Fierce Healthcare that paramedics represent a significantly untapped part of the healthcare workforce, particularly in light of growing interest in home-based care and worsening workforce shortages
"We really believe EMTs and paramedics are one of the most underutilized workforces in healthcare," Trigub said.
MedArrive was not created to respond to the demands of COVID-19, but the pandemic has quickly proven the use case for its services, he said. Now, MedArrive is looking at ways it can build on partnerships like the one with Health Net to address other needs.
For example, the company has also worked closely with SCAN Health Plan, which is now an investor in MedArrive. In a partnership with Molina Healthcare in Texas, MedArrive was able to significantly reduce emergency department and hospital admissions by focusing on the plans' "frequent fliers" with home-based interventions.
Its EMTs and paramedics are local and understand the communities they serve, which makes them adept at providing such care, Trigub said.
"COVID was just a really good use case for us, but from Day One we never set out to build MedArrive to deliver vaccinations," he said. "It’s really allowed us to continue to evolve and develop our platforms."