Longitudinal virtual primary care company HealthTap is partnering with NaphCare to take care of individuals released from federal prisons as they transition back into society.
More than 600,000 individuals are released from federal prisons each year, and more than half have chronic conditions like diabetes, obesity or substance use disorders. Poor access to healthcare has been shown to contribute to recidivism.
NaphCare provides healthcare in prisons and jails, and the company sought a partner to refer patients quickly and that could work around the constraints of the population such as limited access to the internet and temporary living arrangements.
HealthTap is a virtual care platform that connects patients to a primary care provider that seeks to have a long-term relationship with the patient. For formerly incarcerated individuals, it could be especially important that they have consistent, easy access to a primary care physician to address their healthcare needs after they are released from prison. “The lifestyle in prison isn’t conducive to healthy living,” HealthTap CEO Sean Mehra said in an interview.
He continued: “So you're looking at, most commonly, conditions like obesity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia. You're looking at mental and behavioral health disorders, everything from anxiety, stress and depression, which can run the gamut from extremely mild to severe, all sorts of addiction [and] abuse issues, and I think often it's underappreciated the role that primary care doctors have in curbing and treating addiction issues … which also are contributing factors to recidivism.”
Mehra also explained that the lack of high-quality sleep can severely affect health. Formerly incarcerated individuals may also be dealing with childhood conditions like asthma that have gone untreated.
Primary care physicians, as a standard of care, consider social determinants of health that may affect the patient, ranging from employment status to access to food.
HealthTap also provides its clinicians with resources to help accommodate new patients like a guideline of best practices and sensitivities. The company also does frequent webinars for its providers to discuss new partnerships and patients coming into the practice.
The virtual care provider has worked to accommodate its platform for the potential workflows that may arise with the population, like the platform being primarily navigated by a caregiver if the patient can’t use the platform on their own.
The launch of the program follows a pilot the two companies conducted together, where HealthTap providers saw patients in Texas, Colorado, Arizona and Florida. In the pilot, HealthTap demonstrated that it could provide same-day or same-week appointment availability and connection to an urgent care provider in an average of 30 seconds.
“Continuity of care and access to care is extremely important to us, and the national expansion of our network with HealthTap is a testament to our proactive, patient-centered approach,” Katherine Tarica, chief operating officer of the federal division at NaphCare, said in a statement. “As a forward-thinking and mission-driven virtual care provider, HealthTap will allow NaphCare to enhance the delivery of medical care to our patients.”
After formerly incarcerated individuals have transitioned from NaphCare’s program, they will be able to continue their relationship with their HealthTap provider with its payer-agnostic business model, including cash pay.
Many released individuals are covered by Medicaid, and HealthTap is contracted with Ohio Medicaid and has nine other contracts in tow. Mehra said HealthTap aims to work with the majority of Medicaid programs by the end of 2025.
“The Medicaid segment is highly ignored by digital health as a private sector because of the tough reimbursement schedules, and yet it comprises one-fourth of the U.S. population,” Mehra said. “The fact that we have built our business to be sustainable economically, even at lower reimbursement rates, is what is enabling us to kind of go into those populations, whether it's viable or not.”
Because contracting with Medicaid can be a difficult and slow process, many digital health companies stay out of the market segment, Mehra said.
“Once those contracts are established, you're one of very few to no other options for these individuals. And so you can really rely on building a long-term relationship with that segment, which often is the one that needs it the most,” he explained.