Horizon Healthcare Services, Inc. is the oldest and largest health insurer in New Jersey with more than 3.8 million members, and a leading example of an insurance company in the U.S. healthcare system (the variety of healthcare schemes, from fully privatized to nationalized, across the world is considerable). The health insurer has entered into partnership with the healthcare on demand app, Pager. Pager is an app-based interface, as Tech Crunch reports, allowing the user to talk to one of Pager’s on-staff nurses. After the nurses has assessed the need of the user, the nurse will proceed to identify the most appropriate medical provider and level of service required. The service could be a form of remote telemedicine with a doctor by ‘phone or through a video link; alternatively the service may be a house call or, in more serious cases a visit to the hospital.
The latest version of Pager combines powerful artificial intelligence, with the design advantage that it has been built with the user in mind. The aim of the product is to simplify access access to healthcare for those in the U.S. enrolled in an insurance scheme.
Pager is a relatively new startup. The company was co-founded by Oscar Salazar, Uber’s founding Chief Technology Officer. One of the key drivers of the company was to make the healthcare access similar to the experience of using Uber’s app.
In recent years Pager has constructed an on-demand healthcare business in New York, taking a direct-to-consumer approach. This approach is about promoting a product or service straight from the seller to the consumer, without intermediary advertising such as television commercials, radio ads or public displays. After its New York success, Pager has begun partnering with large health systems and insurance companies to upscale its platform. Working with Horizon Healthcare Services is just the lastest example.
With the new arrangement, Pager provides Horizon Healthcare Services members with a single entry point into the complex U.S. healthcare system. The aim here is to diffuse the complexity of decision making and ease the passage through the labyrinthian U.S. healthcare system. Pager looks to take most of this burden off of the patient, engaging them with intuitive technology and directing them to the most appropriate care setting. The app can even schedule appointments. Pager plans to adapt its artificial intelligence further to make the care experience personalized to the individual patient.
As well as patient benefits, the business-to-business arrangement allows a company like Horizon to save money, avoiding picking up additional costs when its health insurance scheme members make the wrong care choices. Developments like Pager are part of a growing trend of technological advancements in the healthcare field.
