September 26, 2023
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Women get less value out of their benefits than men do: Deloitte study
By Paige Minemyer Sep 26, 2023 05:00am
Deloitte Women's health Employer-Sponsored Health Plan Healthcare Costs
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Women are more likely to need services that surpass the deductible, leading to higher spending out-of-pocket, according to the report. ((Getty/everydayplus))
Women face greater medical costs than men and, as such, are getting significantly less value out of their benefits, according to a new analysis from Deloitte.
Researchers at Deloitte dug into data from the Komodo Healthcare Map and found that employed women face as much as $15.4 billion more each year in out-of-pocket costs compared to men. Across all ages between 19 and 64, women's out-of-pocket expenses were higher on average, according to the report.
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Among people with commercial insurance, the value of benefits to women is more than $1.3 billion less then men, the study found.
"We know about the wage gap and other products that are in market, like the 'pink tax,'" said Andy Davis, a principal at Deloitte's healthcare practice and one of the study's authors, in an interview with Fierce Healthcare. "It's another area where we continue to put more financial burden on women than we do men."
Related
How sustainability initiatives can mitigate climate risks and advance health equity: Deloitte
Women also use more healthcare services, according to the report, but that doesn't necessary explain why the gap in expenses is so yawning. On average in 2021, women spent 20% more on out-of-pocket expenses compared to men and, excluding maternity costs, only slimmed the difference to 18%.
Women are more likely to need services that surpass the deductible, leading to higher spending out-of-pocket, according to the report. The analysts also found that women are more likely to reach their out-of-pocket maximum.
Some of the factors identified include early-age recommendations for annual checkups, more frequent gynecological care and higher cost for cancer screenings like mammograms.
For instance, it's common that women have coverage for one mammogram per year at no cost, Davis said. However, the follow-up diagnostics for mammograms can be costly, which will lead to higher expenses.
Routine cancer screenings for men, such as prostate exams and colorectal cancer tests, also tend to start later in life than tests for women do, Davis said.
So, what can insurers and employers be doing to address these issues? It starts with reexamining their benefits and thinking about ways they can address the highest-cost services that impact women most.
The researchers recommend that plans and plan sponsors conduct a comprehensive review on their benefits focusing on the effects on men, women and people of any gender. Covering this actuarial value gap, according to the report, shouldn't come at a massive cost to employers, either.
The analysts said it will cost less than $12 per employee, or less than $1 each month.
In addition, Davis said insurers and plan sponsors can be looking at the services that women use most often and finding ways to address spend in those areas to reduce the burden on them.
For example, women are more likely to seek out mental health care than men and tend to use more services on average. So addressing the coinsurance around behavioral health or offering coverage with no or low cost-sharing could make a huge difference, he said.
"These are small changes that can have a really large impact on the overall financial burden on women," he said.
Finance Payers
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Sep 25, 2023 02:00pm
Costco expands healthcare footprint, teams up with Sesame to offer members $29 virtual care visits
Sep 25, 2023 01:00pm
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September 26, 2023
Costco taps Sesame to offer members $29 virtual care visits
The Sesame marketplace is comprised of primary care doctors and nurse practitioners as well as more than 40 health specialties, labs and imaging centers and is inclusive of both virtual and in-person care. (Sesame)
Costco is joining retail competitors Walgreens, Walmart and CVS Health by expanding its healthcare footprint.
The big-box retailer teamed up with startup Sesame to offer special discount pricing to Costco members on a broad range of outpatient medical care services, including telehealth visits. Costco members nationally can book appointments directly through their Costco memberships for Sesame's "best pricing" including virtual primary care visits for $29 and online mental health therapy visits for $79.
New York City-based Sesame launched in 2019 to connect patients to in-person and virtual care using a direct-pay model. The company built a two-sided marketplace for patients and healthcare providers. As a cash-pay business, Sesame aims to address the healthcare needs of uninsured consumers and those with high-deductible plans.
The Sesame marketplace is comprised of primary care doctors and nurse practitioners as well as more than 40 health specialties, labs and imaging centers and is inclusive of both virtual and in-person care, according to the company. The company says its marketplace gives consumers direct access to more than 10,000 healthcare providers that charge a cash price and do not accept nor require insurance, and more than 100,000 patients have been treated by doctors found through Sesame.
"Quality, great value, and low price are what the Costco brand is known for," said David Goldhill, Sesame’s co-founder and CEO, in a press release. "When it comes to health care, Sesame also delivers high quality and great value—and a low price that will be appreciated by Costco Members when it comes to their own care."
Related
Sesame raises $24M to expand cash-pay marketplace for healthcare services
As part of the collaboration between Costco and Sesame, Costco members can also access health checkups for $72, which includes a standard lab panel plus a virtual follow-up consultation with a provider. Members also get 10% off of all other Sesame services, including in-person appointments.
Costco's move to push deeper into healthcare comes as other retailers also expand their healthcare offerings. Walmart has been building out its network of primary care clinics. The company has more than 30 locations in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Texas. The retail giant plans to open four new health centers in the Oklahoma City area . This is in addition to already announced plans to move into Missouri and Arizona in 2024.
Amazon bought primary care company One Medical for $3.9 billion while CVS Health acquired Oak Street Health for $10.6 billion . Walgreens-backed VillageMD also bought medical practice Summit Health, the parent company of urgent care clinic chain CityMD, for nearly $9 billion.
But Costco executives point out that the big-box retailer has a different strategy. Other retailers are expanding their healthcare offerings by offering preventive and urgent care services in store as well as opening pharmacies.
Featured Event
The Future of the Payer Industry: Headwinds, Tailwinds and Wild Cards
November 2-3, 2023
Austin, TX
Register
"By partnering with Sesame, Costco is providing its members access to Sesame marketplace of low-price healthcare services, virtually or in-person with a provider, all at an exclusive discount. With the option to bring healthcare into their home, Costco members will have access to care in a setting that’s right for them and have the option to develop long-term doctor-patient relationships with a Sesame provider," Costco executives said.
A private-equity-backed company, Sesame has raised $75 million from investors including Google Ventures. The company has reported that patients using its cash-pay healthcare marketplace saved between 20% and 67% on the cost of healthcare services.
In February 2022, jumped into the employer market by rolling out a service that provides employee healthcare offerings for small and medium-sized businesses.
September 25, 2023
Retail healthcare is a growing area of interest for many companies, as healthcare moves into the home and both retailers and traditional companies eye a piece of the nearly $4 trillion health industry pie.
From retail health clinics to wearable medical devices, there are more ideas brewing to expand healthcare access points and get patients care where they are, in their homes.
Medical devices —which now include wearables like smart watches and remote monitoring devices like blood pressure cuffs or glucose monitors — are providing significant market opportunity.
While the basic concept is the same as retail —getting a product or service to a customer — it is also higher stakes. As Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan recently said, making a healthcare purchase is "not like buying a toaster. It really can be life or death."
And patients are a captive market in the largely opaque and insular health industry, where prices are often hidden and there's little transparency about the process available for patients.
Best Buy (BBY), for example, has a health segment that started making moves more than five years ago, with a focus on tech platforms and device providers that cater to the needs of patients in their homes. The company acquired Current Health, which provides at-home technology, patient monitoring, and healthcare services, in 2022 for $400 million.
Best Buy previously acquired GreatCall, an emergency response service for older patients, for $800 million in 2018. That deal gave BestBuy 900,000 subscribers to add to its customer base.
Since then, the retailer has announced partnerships with hospital systems that tie the at-home care with access to Geek Squad — the retailer's longtime technology support service, which will help patients use and troubleshoot their new medical devices.
The company also launched spaces in 40 stores nationwide last year that allow for customers to experience new devices — including non-healthcare devices. That includes testing out treadmills, smart refrigerators, hearing aids, and the like.
Best Buy has seen success linking Geek Squad with patients at Atrium Health and Geisinger Health, two large health systems in the country, and recently announced ramping up its relationship with Geisinger.
But the company maintains it is only interested in being a partner that provides the technology support, rather than moving into the health provider space as other retailers like Walmart (WMT), with its health centers, and Amazon (AMZN), with its primary care One Medical acquisition, have done.
"We are not looking to provide care; we want to make the process of receiving care at home easier by doing what we do best: bringing consumers the technology they need and to age, receive care and remain well in their homes," said Deborah Di Sanzo, president of Best Buy Health, in an emailed response to Yahoo Finance.
"Traditional retail does play a role, especially when our large store footprint allows us to reach so many people. Seventy percent of Americans live within 10 minutes of a Best Buy," Di Sanzo said.
And the company is leveraging that footprint to provide interactive displays that can help customers become familiar with newer technology for at-home care.
So could you see mobility scooters in a Best Buy near you?
"In these stores you would indeed see new categories .... next to traditional tech customers love to see from Best Buy like TVs, but in addition to that, you’d also see an interactive display of over-the-counter hearing aids, expanded health and wellness areas with tons of new and innovative products," Di Sanzo said.
All of this is taking place as retailers undergo a transformation period, as more shopping is done online putting less demand on larger-footprint stores. But it isn't just retailers giving rise to big box medicine — that is, healthcare in a consumer-friendly format.
GE Healthcare (GEHC), which spun off into an independent company this year, has been a longtime player in medical devices for hospital use. But it sees opportunity in the at-home space, with portable devices sold through retailers, as well as providing the hospital-grade devices a retail clinic might need.
Catherine Estrampes, US and Canada CEO for GE Healthcare, told Yahoo Finance at-home care is a big topic for the company.
"There will be more demand for in-the-home, or in retail spaces, access to technology — to simple, new technology. There is always going to be a lot of demand for inpatient and clinics. But I think, if you look at the market structure today, the Walmarts and CVSs (CVS), they are making big moves into the market," Estrampes said.
One of the ideas Estrampes shared could be adding mammograms to retail health sites at a CVS or a Walmart. For example, imagine being in a retail store, and before you do your shopping, you get a mammogram with a health provider at the on-site clinic.
The company has also launched a handheld ultrasound device, Vscan Air, which can be used both for the maternity care market, but also has benefits for rural markets in the US and globally. To compliment the handheld use, GE Healthcare acquired Caption Health earlier this year, which is an AI platform that could help guide a medical professional in using a handheld ultrasound device.
The company also invested in Pulsenmore, an at-home ultrasound system that expectant mothers can use.
That could reduce the burden of multiple doctor's visits that maternal care requires — making the process easier for both patient and provider, especially if data can be transmitted to the doctor or health system, Estrampes said.
Data is key in this scenario, so having healthcare partners linked through electronic medical records could become an important avenue to having better health outcomes for patients, Estrampes said.
But there's another benefit: It can also help GE Healthcare build better products.
"The data is totally linked to the development of insights, so that we can develop predictive analytics to detect early and treat earlier," Estrampes said.
Follow Anjalee on Twitter @AnjKhem.
Click here for the latest stock market news and in-depth analysis, including events that move stocks
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
September 25, 2023
OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, is working with Hint Health on a new AI-powered clinical documentation platform they hope will improve the physician-patient relationship by streamlining note taking and transcription.
WHY IT MATTERS
Hint Health has added beta capabilities to its All-in-One clinical platform that enable doctors to record patient consultations or interactions within the app and transcribe them using OpenAI's Whisper API – which can auto generate clinical documentation using OpenAI large language models.
The aim is to help the thousands of direct primary care physicians using the Hint platform to have more time to focus on their patients – and to grow their business – and to spend less time taking notes.
Hint and OpenAI say the integration is meant to help DPC docs use technology to "amplify their care rather than replace it," and to support physicians by enabling more meaningful interactions at the point of care and reducing clinician burnout.
"In the hands of the DPC community, we believe AI has the potential to help restore trust and integrity in our healthcare systems," said Zak Holdsworth, CEO of Hint Health, in a statement.
THE LARGER TREND
Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT hold big promise for clinical applications and patient engagement. That's why companies such as Epic and Oracle Health are integrating the capabilities into their EHR offerings.
While some experts say hospitals aren't ready yet for LLM-based patient portals, and others caution that providers should stay aware of the limitations of generative AI, it's clear that an array of compelling clinical, financial and operation use cases are showing its transformative potential.
As they integrate generative AI into clinical practice, here are some tips to help provider organizations use it responsibly.
ON THE RECORD
"Our vision is a future where technology empowers, rather than hinders, the doctor-patient relationship," said Holdsworth. "The technological arms race in insurance based care models has for decades led to systematically worse access and experience for patients and doctors, and Direct Primary Care is reversing this trend."
"AI has the potential to revolutionize healthcare in a way that enhances, rather than replaces, human relationships," added Aliisa Rosenthal, head of sales at OpenAI. "We are excited that Hint Health is using OpenAI's technology to bring advanced tools to doctors who share our vision."
Mike Miliard is executive editor of Healthcare IT News
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.
September 26, 2023
Subscribe
Register today : Connect with key thought leaders at the Fierce Health Payer Summit
Payers
Women get less value out of their benefits than men do: Deloitte study
By Paige Minemyer Sep 26, 2023 05:00am
Deloitte Women's health Employer-Sponsored Health Plan Healthcare Costs
Share
Women are more likely to need services that surpass the deductible, leading to higher spending out-of-pocket, according to the report. ((Getty/everydayplus))
Women face greater medical costs than men and, as such, are getting significantly less value out of their benefits, according to a new analysis from Deloitte.
Researchers at Deloitte dug into data from the Komodo Healthcare Map and found that employed women face as much as $15.4 billion more each year in out-of-pocket costs compared to men. Across all ages between 19 and 64, women's out-of-pocket expenses were higher on average, according to the report.
Featured Event
The Future of the Payer Industry: Headwinds, Tailwinds and Wild Cards
November 2-3, 2023
Austin, TX
Register
Among people with commercial insurance, the value of benefits to women is more than $1.3 billion less then men, the study found.
"We know about the wage gap and other products that are in market, like the 'pink tax,'" said Andy Davis, a principal at Deloitte's healthcare practice and one of the study's authors, in an interview with Fierce Healthcare. "It's another area where we continue to put more financial burden on women than we do men."
Related
How sustainability initiatives can mitigate climate risks and advance health equity: Deloitte
Women also use more healthcare services, according to the report, but that doesn't necessary explain why the gap in expenses is so yawning. On average in 2021, women spent 20% more on out-of-pocket expenses compared to men and, excluding maternity costs, only slimmed the difference to 18%.
Women are more likely to need services that surpass the deductible, leading to higher spending out-of-pocket, according to the report. The analysts also found that women are more likely to reach their out-of-pocket maximum.
Some of the factors identified include early-age recommendations for annual checkups, more frequent gynecological care and higher cost for cancer screenings like mammograms.
For instance, it's common that women have coverage for one mammogram per year at no cost, Davis said. However, the follow-up diagnostics for mammograms can be costly, which will lead to higher expenses.
Routine cancer screenings for men, such as prostate exams and colorectal cancer tests, also tend to start later in life than tests for women do, Davis said.
So, what can insurers and employers be doing to address these issues? It starts with reexamining their benefits and thinking about ways they can address the highest-cost services that impact women most.
The researchers recommend that plans and plan sponsors conduct a comprehensive review on their benefits focusing on the effects on men, women and people of any gender. Covering this actuarial value gap, according to the report, shouldn't come at a massive cost to employers, either.
The analysts said it will cost less than $12 per employee, or less than $1 each month.
In addition, Davis said insurers and plan sponsors can be looking at the services that women use most often and finding ways to address spend in those areas to reduce the burden on them.
For example, women are more likely to seek out mental health care than men and tend to use more services on average. So addressing the coinsurance around behavioral health or offering coverage with no or low cost-sharing could make a huge difference, he said.
"These are small changes that can have a really large impact on the overall financial burden on women," he said.
Finance Payers
Related Articles
Women get less value out of their benefits than men do: Deloitte study
Sep 26, 2023 05:00am
CMS urged to change GLP-1 drug coverage determination
Sep 25, 2023 04:00pm
Biden signs bill introducing more competition to US' organ transplant network
Sep 25, 2023 02:00pm
Costco expands healthcare footprint, teams up with Sesame to offer members $29 virtual care visits
Sep 25, 2023 01:00pm
Connect
The Team Advertise Join Us
Newsletters Resources RSS Feeds Editorial Advisory Council Our Brands
Fierce Pharma Fierce Biotech Fierce Healthcare Our Events
Life Sciences Events
©2023 Questex LLC All rights reserved.
Terms of use
Privacy Policy
September 26, 2023
Costco taps Sesame to offer members $29 virtual care visits
The Sesame marketplace is comprised of primary care doctors and nurse practitioners as well as more than 40 health specialties, labs and imaging centers and is inclusive of both virtual and in-person care. (Sesame)
Costco is joining retail competitors Walgreens, Walmart and CVS Health by expanding its healthcare footprint.
The big-box retailer teamed up with startup Sesame to offer special discount pricing to Costco members on a broad range of outpatient medical care services, including telehealth visits. Costco members nationally can book appointments directly through their Costco memberships for Sesame's "best pricing" including virtual primary care visits for $29 and online mental health therapy visits for $79.
New York City-based Sesame launched in 2019 to connect patients to in-person and virtual care using a direct-pay model. The company built a two-sided marketplace for patients and healthcare providers. As a cash-pay business, Sesame aims to address the healthcare needs of uninsured consumers and those with high-deductible plans.
The Sesame marketplace is comprised of primary care doctors and nurse practitioners as well as more than 40 health specialties, labs and imaging centers and is inclusive of both virtual and in-person care, according to the company. The company says its marketplace gives consumers direct access to more than 10,000 healthcare providers that charge a cash price and do not accept nor require insurance, and more than 100,000 patients have been treated by doctors found through Sesame.
"Quality, great value, and low price are what the Costco brand is known for," said David Goldhill, Sesame’s co-founder and CEO, in a press release. "When it comes to health care, Sesame also delivers high quality and great value—and a low price that will be appreciated by Costco Members when it comes to their own care."
Related
Sesame raises $24M to expand cash-pay marketplace for healthcare services
As part of the collaboration between Costco and Sesame, Costco members can also access health checkups for $72, which includes a standard lab panel plus a virtual follow-up consultation with a provider. Members also get 10% off of all other Sesame services, including in-person appointments.
Costco's move to push deeper into healthcare comes as other retailers also expand their healthcare offerings. Walmart has been building out its network of primary care clinics. The company has more than 30 locations in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Texas. The retail giant plans to open four new health centers in the Oklahoma City area . This is in addition to already announced plans to move into Missouri and Arizona in 2024.
Amazon bought primary care company One Medical for $3.9 billion while CVS Health acquired Oak Street Health for $10.6 billion . Walgreens-backed VillageMD also bought medical practice Summit Health, the parent company of urgent care clinic chain CityMD, for nearly $9 billion.
But Costco executives point out that the big-box retailer has a different strategy. Other retailers are expanding their healthcare offerings by offering preventive and urgent care services in store as well as opening pharmacies.
Featured Event
The Future of the Payer Industry: Headwinds, Tailwinds and Wild Cards
November 2-3, 2023
Austin, TX
Register
"By partnering with Sesame, Costco is providing its members access to Sesame marketplace of low-price healthcare services, virtually or in-person with a provider, all at an exclusive discount. With the option to bring healthcare into their home, Costco members will have access to care in a setting that’s right for them and have the option to develop long-term doctor-patient relationships with a Sesame provider," Costco executives said.
A private-equity-backed company, Sesame has raised $75 million from investors including Google Ventures. The company has reported that patients using its cash-pay healthcare marketplace saved between 20% and 67% on the cost of healthcare services.
In February 2022, jumped into the employer market by rolling out a service that provides employee healthcare offerings for small and medium-sized businesses.
September 25, 2023
Retail healthcare is a growing area of interest for many companies, as healthcare moves into the home and both retailers and traditional companies eye a piece of the nearly $4 trillion health industry pie.
From retail health clinics to wearable medical devices, there are more ideas brewing to expand healthcare access points and get patients care where they are, in their homes.
Medical devices —which now include wearables like smart watches and remote monitoring devices like blood pressure cuffs or glucose monitors — are providing significant market opportunity.
While the basic concept is the same as retail —getting a product or service to a customer — it is also higher stakes. As Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan recently said, making a healthcare purchase is "not like buying a toaster. It really can be life or death."
And patients are a captive market in the largely opaque and insular health industry, where prices are often hidden and there's little transparency about the process available for patients.
Best Buy (BBY), for example, has a health segment that started making moves more than five years ago, with a focus on tech platforms and device providers that cater to the needs of patients in their homes. The company acquired Current Health, which provides at-home technology, patient monitoring, and healthcare services, in 2022 for $400 million.
Best Buy previously acquired GreatCall, an emergency response service for older patients, for $800 million in 2018. That deal gave BestBuy 900,000 subscribers to add to its customer base.
Since then, the retailer has announced partnerships with hospital systems that tie the at-home care with access to Geek Squad — the retailer's longtime technology support service, which will help patients use and troubleshoot their new medical devices.
The company also launched spaces in 40 stores nationwide last year that allow for customers to experience new devices — including non-healthcare devices. That includes testing out treadmills, smart refrigerators, hearing aids, and the like.
Best Buy has seen success linking Geek Squad with patients at Atrium Health and Geisinger Health, two large health systems in the country, and recently announced ramping up its relationship with Geisinger.
But the company maintains it is only interested in being a partner that provides the technology support, rather than moving into the health provider space as other retailers like Walmart (WMT), with its health centers, and Amazon (AMZN), with its primary care One Medical acquisition, have done.
"We are not looking to provide care; we want to make the process of receiving care at home easier by doing what we do best: bringing consumers the technology they need and to age, receive care and remain well in their homes," said Deborah Di Sanzo, president of Best Buy Health, in an emailed response to Yahoo Finance.
"Traditional retail does play a role, especially when our large store footprint allows us to reach so many people. Seventy percent of Americans live within 10 minutes of a Best Buy," Di Sanzo said.
And the company is leveraging that footprint to provide interactive displays that can help customers become familiar with newer technology for at-home care.
So could you see mobility scooters in a Best Buy near you?
"In these stores you would indeed see new categories .... next to traditional tech customers love to see from Best Buy like TVs, but in addition to that, you’d also see an interactive display of over-the-counter hearing aids, expanded health and wellness areas with tons of new and innovative products," Di Sanzo said.
All of this is taking place as retailers undergo a transformation period, as more shopping is done online putting less demand on larger-footprint stores. But it isn't just retailers giving rise to big box medicine — that is, healthcare in a consumer-friendly format.
GE Healthcare (GEHC), which spun off into an independent company this year, has been a longtime player in medical devices for hospital use. But it sees opportunity in the at-home space, with portable devices sold through retailers, as well as providing the hospital-grade devices a retail clinic might need.
Catherine Estrampes, US and Canada CEO for GE Healthcare, told Yahoo Finance at-home care is a big topic for the company.
"There will be more demand for in-the-home, or in retail spaces, access to technology — to simple, new technology. There is always going to be a lot of demand for inpatient and clinics. But I think, if you look at the market structure today, the Walmarts and CVSs (CVS), they are making big moves into the market," Estrampes said.
One of the ideas Estrampes shared could be adding mammograms to retail health sites at a CVS or a Walmart. For example, imagine being in a retail store, and before you do your shopping, you get a mammogram with a health provider at the on-site clinic.
The company has also launched a handheld ultrasound device, Vscan Air, which can be used both for the maternity care market, but also has benefits for rural markets in the US and globally. To compliment the handheld use, GE Healthcare acquired Caption Health earlier this year, which is an AI platform that could help guide a medical professional in using a handheld ultrasound device.
The company also invested in Pulsenmore, an at-home ultrasound system that expectant mothers can use.
That could reduce the burden of multiple doctor's visits that maternal care requires — making the process easier for both patient and provider, especially if data can be transmitted to the doctor or health system, Estrampes said.
Data is key in this scenario, so having healthcare partners linked through electronic medical records could become an important avenue to having better health outcomes for patients, Estrampes said.
But there's another benefit: It can also help GE Healthcare build better products.
"The data is totally linked to the development of insights, so that we can develop predictive analytics to detect early and treat earlier," Estrampes said.
Follow Anjalee on Twitter @AnjKhem.
Click here for the latest stock market news and in-depth analysis, including events that move stocks
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
September 25, 2023
OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, is working with Hint Health on a new AI-powered clinical documentation platform they hope will improve the physician-patient relationship by streamlining note taking and transcription.
WHY IT MATTERS
Hint Health has added beta capabilities to its All-in-One clinical platform that enable doctors to record patient consultations or interactions within the app and transcribe them using OpenAI's Whisper API – which can auto generate clinical documentation using OpenAI large language models.
The aim is to help the thousands of direct primary care physicians using the Hint platform to have more time to focus on their patients – and to grow their business – and to spend less time taking notes.
Hint and OpenAI say the integration is meant to help DPC docs use technology to "amplify their care rather than replace it," and to support physicians by enabling more meaningful interactions at the point of care and reducing clinician burnout.
"In the hands of the DPC community, we believe AI has the potential to help restore trust and integrity in our healthcare systems," said Zak Holdsworth, CEO of Hint Health, in a statement.
THE LARGER TREND
Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT hold big promise for clinical applications and patient engagement. That's why companies such as Epic and Oracle Health are integrating the capabilities into their EHR offerings.
While some experts say hospitals aren't ready yet for LLM-based patient portals, and others caution that providers should stay aware of the limitations of generative AI, it's clear that an array of compelling clinical, financial and operation use cases are showing its transformative potential.
As they integrate generative AI into clinical practice, here are some tips to help provider organizations use it responsibly.
ON THE RECORD
"Our vision is a future where technology empowers, rather than hinders, the doctor-patient relationship," said Holdsworth. "The technological arms race in insurance based care models has for decades led to systematically worse access and experience for patients and doctors, and Direct Primary Care is reversing this trend."
"AI has the potential to revolutionize healthcare in a way that enhances, rather than replaces, human relationships," added Aliisa Rosenthal, head of sales at OpenAI. "We are excited that Hint Health is using OpenAI's technology to bring advanced tools to doctors who share our vision."
Mike Miliard is executive editor of Healthcare IT News
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.
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