Luna, an in-home musculoskeletal (MSK) care provider, has launched five new value-based specialty programs to reduce the total cost of MSK cost of care and improve patient outcomes.
The new products will serve a variety of needs, from surgical assessments to postoperative care, and are available in 28 states covering 190 million U.S. residents. They were developed to fill the gap created by virtual companies that struggle to deliver engaging, compelling care to patients, Luna says.
To date, Luna has provided fee-for-service billing for visits and has only contracted with payers with an in-network strategy. It is now contracting with payers and value-based care groups to provide specialized clinical interventions with specific outcomes to be delivered.
“Luna's mission is to deliver the highest quality of care in the home, and at the same time, drive down MSK total cost of care for health plans and at-risk providers," RaeAnn Grossman, Luna's chief growth officer, said in a press release. "This unique and compelling combination ensures adherence and cost-effectiveness with even better patient outcomes."
The five clinical interventions can be used by payers, providers and managed services organizations as patients travel through their care journey. Certain mental health conditions, injuries or surgeries can trigger a specific clinical intervention to ensure quality care and strong outcomes, Grossman told Fierce Healthcare.
“The cornerstones of excellence, affordability, accessibility, convenience were always the foundation of Luna,” Grossman said. The latest offerings add ease of use and performance monitoring and highlight the value for health plans and patients, she added.
The new physical therapy programs are:
Luna Complete: Dynamically tailored adherence to care enabling patients to complete their therapy, with 80% or more achieving their discharge goals. This has been offered since Luna’s inception but is now a formal product to maximize ease of activation, engagement and alignment with stakeholders.
Luna Surgical Readiness: Focused on effective nonsurgical therapy with the goal of reducing unnecessary surgeries and the related cost of care for health plans. During in-home visits, Luna will deploy a new scoring methodology to classify patients into high, medium or low need for surgery. Executing this program to reduce 1,000 surgeries per month generates $1.5 billion in savings over five years for a payer, per Luna. The price point is a bundled fee based on performance.
Luna Postoperative Success: Combining the convenience of in-home with outpatient postoperative care, the product is designed to reduce overutilization of traditional home health. The product's first customer was Hoag Hospital, but other payer customers will soon also be announced. The product has specific clinical interventions, a bundled price point for payers and specific care metrics in place like reduced readmission rates.
Luna Fall Safeguard: The product is designed to help patients with fall risks and reduce costs for payers. Once a patient has fallen once, their likelihood of repeated falls and associated complications and costs are high, Luna argues. The product offers specific clinical interventions to help patients avoid falls with ongoing visits along with a new scoring methodology to classify patients into high, medium or low fall risk and determine specific care plans based on that score. The price point is a fee based on performance.
Luna Mobility Empowerment: Prioritizing Medicare Advantage patients to strengthen mobility, regain independence and reduce the cost of care.
Earlier this year, Luna inked a partnership with AARP (previously called the American Association for Retired Persons), becoming the exclusive at-home provider of physical therapy for its members. It also teamed up with Powerback Rehabilitation, one of the country’s largest rehab providers, to expand Powerback’s capacity with Luna physical therapists while helping scale Luna's footprint.