Combatting Chronic Disease among Medicaid Patients with RPM

Though virtual healthcare has the potential to expand healthcare access well beyond the bounds of hospital walls, social determinants of health, or SDOH, and other factors can prevent certain people from adopting and using virtual care tools. The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare this thorny issue. On the one hand, virtual care played a critical role in enabling people to access healthcare, but on the other, vulnerable populations were often unable to reap the benefits of virtual care.To close these virtual care gaps, healthcare providers and payers are increasingly joining forces. A recent example is the partnership between New Orleans-based Ochsner Health and Louisiana-based Medicaid managed care plan AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana. Together, the organizations plan to expand access to digital care services for chronic disease management to Medicaid beneficiaries across the state.