Physical and mental health are inextricably intertwined — senior-focused primary care can help bridge the treatment gap

The post Mental Health and Aging: The Role of Primary Care in Overcoming Barriers to Treatment appeared first on MedCity News.

Centivo, a health plan that sells to self-funded employers, acquired virtual-first primary care startup Eden Health. With this acquisition, Centivo now serves more than 160 employers in all 50 states.

The post Centivo Acquires a Primary Care Startup, Despite Others Fleeing the Space appeared first on MedCity News.

Increasingly, nurse practitioners and physician assistants are joining cardiology, dermatology, and other specialty practices, broadening their skills and increasing their income.
This development worries some people who track the health workforce, because current trends suggest primary care, soon might not be able to rely on them to mitigate the physician shortage.

The post The Lure of Specialty Medicine Pulls Nurse Practitioners From Primary Care appeared first on MedCity News.

No matter what form they take, one thing is clear — there is an urgent demand for digital primary care providers to guide patient navigation in the digital health era.

The post Healthcare’s Next Void to Fill: Digital Primary Care appeared first on MedCity News.

The future of American healthcare hinges on the continued support and elevation of independent primary care—a cornerstone that not only enhances healthcare quality and cost controls but also ensures a healthier and more equitable future for all.

The post Preserving the Pillars: The Vital Role of Independent Primary Care in American Healthcare appeared first on MedCity News.

Elation Health integrated Surescripts’ real-time prescription benefit tool — which gives clinicians immediate access to patient-specific medication coverage and cost data — into its EHR. The partnership aims to improve patients’ medication adherence by helping primary care physicians have more meaningful conversations with their patients about prescription affordability during visits.

The post Elation Health’s New Integration Brings Drug Pricing Transparency to the Point of Care for PCPs appeared first on MedCity News.

Cano Health filed for bankruptcy this week — about three years after going public $4.4 billion SPAC merger. The industry reacted without surprise, with experts calling the bankruptcy a direct result of mismanagement, a quixotic growth strategy and poor market selection.

The post Why Experts Saw Cano Health’s Bankruptcy Coming From A Mile Away appeared first on MedCity News.

Primary care is essential to living healthier lives, and we need all forms of it, from small local practices to big health systems and retail chains. Ultimately, it’s going to be all primary care hands on deck, working together to make a lasting change for the health of Americans.

The post What Primary Care’s “Barnes & Noble Moment” Means for the Future of Digital Health appeared first on MedCity News.

Accompany Health launched Tuesday with $56 million in Series A funding. It offers primary and behavioral care for underserved patients. It also provides social care, such as food, housing and transportation assistance.

The post Startup Launches To Support Low-Income Patients with Complex Needs appeared first on MedCity News.

Medicare Advantage patients without a primary care physician are perhaps the greatest risk to health plans in 2024. Health plans must adopt best practices to reach and engage MA patients, especially those with multiple, complex conditions. Here are six best practices to consider.

The post Will We Close the Medicare Advantage Primary Care Gap in 2024? appeared first on MedCity News.

Knownwell’s $20 million Series A funding round was led by A16Z and included participation from Flare Capital Partners. The company also launched an adolescent metabolic health program.

The post Knownwell Secures $20M for Weight-Inclusive Primary Care appeared first on MedCity News.

At Northshore–Edward Elmhurst Health, all patients are offered genetic testing as part of their primary care visit. This helps clinicians create more personalized care plans and facilitates earlier disease diagnoses, said Kristen Murtos, the health system’s chief innovation and transformation officer.

The post Why 1 Health System Is Embedding Genomics Into Primary Care appeared first on MedCity News.

Team-based primary care is needed now more than ever as our “on-demand” and mobile lives, complicated by a primary care shortage crisis, have led to a more transactional and fragmented healthcare experience.

The post Team-Based Primary Care Offers a Solution for an Underachieving Healthcare System appeared first on MedCity News.

Fee-for-services payment models in the primary care ecosystem are doing a poor job of keeping Americans healthy and reducing the nation’s massive amount of healthcare spending, two CEOs of primary care companies said during a recent webinar. They argued that stakeholders in the primary care space need to come together to support more value-based care arrangements to reduce costs, advance population health and improve the patient experience.

The post Why 2 CEOs Are Clamoring For New Primary Care Payment Models appeared first on MedCity News.

As retail disruptors like CVS, Walgreens and Amazon buy more and more primary care assets, the healthcare industry is seeing an increased demand for physicians and advanced practitioners. In the case of nurse practitioners, this rise in demand is also boosting their salaries. Physicians’ starting salaries have remained relatively flat, but their average signing bonus grew.

The post Nurse Practitioners’ Starting Salaries Are Rising Faster Than Those of Primary Care Physicians appeared first on MedCity News.

Suvida Healthcare — a startup providing primary care for Medicare-eligible Hispanic adults — is adopting Elation Health’s primary care-specific technology platform. The platform comprises an EHR, as well as software for patient engagement, telehealth and revenue cycle management. Suvida’s chief medical officer said Elation beat out the competition due to its focus on both primary care and value-based care.

The post Suvida Healthcare Taps Elation EHR to Help Power Care for Hispanic Seniors appeared first on MedCity News.

Herself Health’s $26 million Series A funding round was led by Michael Cline, founding managing partner of Accretive, and included participation from Juxtapose. It comes six months after Herself Health raised $7 million in seed funding. In total, the company has raised $33 million.

The post Herself Health Secures $26M To Bring Primary Care to Women Ages 65+ appeared first on MedCity News.

Zocdoc recently struck a partnership with Elation Health to increase patients’ access to care. Now, any provider who uses Elation’s primary care-specific EHR can integrate their calendar into Zocdoc’s platform — meaning that the millions of patients who search for care via Zocdoc each month will have access to these providers’ real-time appointment availability.

The post Zocdoc, Elation Health Partner to Increase Access to PCPs appeared first on MedCity News.

Aledade’s $260 million financing round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, a new investor of the company. It also included participation from Venrock, Avidity Partners, OMERS Growth Equity and Fidelity Management and Research Company.

The post Aledade Rakes in $260M for Primary Care Network appeared first on MedCity News.

The post Primary Care Missed Targets in the Quadruple Aim appeared first on MedCity News.

The Making Care Primary Model will be tested by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation from July 1, 2024, to December 31, 2034, in Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina and Washington.

The post CMS Tests New Primary Care Model in 8 States appeared first on MedCity News.

A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine discovered that the cost of providing evidence-based solutions for food, housing, transportation and care coordination is $60 per member per month on average. Existing federal funding covers $27 per member per month, less than half of the total cost.

The post Study: Additional Federal Funding Is Needed To Address SDOH in Primary Care appeared first on MedCity News.

In a series of interviews, two Teladoc Health physicians and a therapist offered a window into a day in the life of delivering virtual care.

The post Clinicians Offer Snapshot from Day in the Life of Delivering Care at Teladoc Health appeared first on MedCity News.

Retail clinic claims volumes have shot up by 200% in the past five years, according to a new report. The research argued that retailers are beginning to seriously compete with the traditional healthcare system when it comes to the primary care market — growth in retail clinic claims have greatly outpaced claims growth for urgent care centers, emergency departments and physician practices.

The post Retail Clinics Are Gaining Momentum As They Vie for Their Piece of the Primary Care Pie appeared first on MedCity News.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts has added Eden Health, On Belay Health Solutions and VillageMD to its primary care network. The physician groups will provide both virtual and in-person care to members.

The post BCBS Massachusetts Adds 3 Physician Groups To Primary Care Network appeared first on MedCity News.

Ascertain — a healthcare AI company creation platform formed last year by Northwell Health and Aegis Ventures — has launched its first startup. New York-based Optain, which has gained an initial seed investment of $12 million, is an AI company meant to enable earlier disease detection and prevention through retinal imaging.

The post Northwell, Aegis Ventures Launch Startup to Diagnose 140+ Diseases Via Retinal Scans appeared first on MedCity News.

Through an expanded partnership with Teladoc, HealthJoy is providing access to virtual primary care services for the first time. The company already offers employers services for areas including mental health, nutrition and musculoskeletal therapy.

The post Expanded HealthJoy, Teladoc Partnership Brings Virtual Primary Care Offering to Employers appeared first on MedCity News.

In an interview, Rob Bressler, general manager for Teladoc Health’s virtual primary care solution Primary360, talked about the company’s shift from telehealth for urgent care to whole person care.

The post Virtual Primary Care: The New Frontier of Healthcare Delivery appeared first on MedCity News.

Integrating pharmacists into primary care teams could be a key way to address the primary care physician shortage, according to a new report. The pandemic made it clear that pharmacists are clinically trained and want to provide care beyond filling prescriptions, the report said.

The post Pharmacists Could Play a Big Role in Addressing the PCP Shortage appeared first on MedCity News.

Three of Cano Health’s board members recently resigned in protest of the company’s management strategy and announced they will form a group to enact comprehensive changes at Cano, including replacing the CEO. They said Cano’s governance structure has caused the company’s stock price “to be decimated, dropping over 90% from its debut” and has saddled the firm with a “crippling debt burden.”

The post 3 Cano Health Board Members Resign & Vow to Oust CEO Amid ‘Decimated’ Stock Price appeared first on MedCity News.