Strategic Deal to Deliver Virtual Value-based Cardiology Care Announced by Guidehealth and Story Health

July 15, 2024 — Guidehealth, an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled healthcare services company, has announced a strategic deal with Story Health, a digital health company transforming specialty care delivery, to bring health systems and clinically integrated networks (CINs) a value-based cardiology care program. Health systems leveraging Guidehealth can seamlessly integrate Story Health’s program to support at-risk patients with heart conditions like heart failure, hypertension, and arrhythmia, providing better care while also reducing the total cost of care, according to a written statement detailing the deal.

“Reducing total costs doesn’t have to come at the expense of delivering high-quality care at scale. Story Health has a proven track record of engaging patients with heart conditions in their health and improving outcomes,” said Guidehealth Co-founder and CEO Sanjay Doddamani, MD, who also is a cardiologist. He added, “Adding Story Health to our ecosystem both allows providers to exceed their care quality goals and ensures patients aren’t waiting to receive ongoing care, especially between visits when they may have higher disease burden or complications that can lead to expensive emergency department visits. This innovative approach directly integrates specialized cardiovascular care for high-risk patients with complex care plans.”

“Cardiovascular diseases are among the costliest and deadliest conditions in our healthcare system. Many patients could avoid adverse events that land them in the hospital if they have more frequent care, much of which can be accomplished virtually and asynchronously,” said Story Health Co-founder and President Nita Sommers. “We are thrilled to partner with Guidehealth to extend the care PCPs in value-based arrangements can provide to their patients by delivering a new model of direct specialty care,” Sommers added.

Supporting more than 500,000 lives, Guidehealth works with several leading health systems and CINs nationwide to increase access to care and improve health outcomes under value-based models. The company notes that it provides a technology platform and clinical support services that integrate directly into primary care workflows, empowering providers to better coordinate care and close care gaps at lower overall costs, all while reducing administrative burden.

Guidehealth’s team of Healthguides extend the reach of a practice by working with a health system’s clinical team to better inform and support complex patients and their families, which includes support for prior authorizations and in-network referrals. Additionally, Guidehealth’s platform augments care plans and streamlines care administration with access to the best commercially available AI along with the company’s own models and solutions – all under one contract.

For provider organizations working with Guidehealth and Story Health, the two organizations will coordinate to provide support for at-risk patients with heart conditions. Guidehealth’s Healthguides will identify qualified patients and assist with enrollment into Story Health’s program. Story Health’s specialized clinical care team, enabled by the technology platform, will directly engage patients to get and keep their care on track. Healthguides will ensure providers are kept up to date, and involve them in any care escalations.

Story Health combines technology and a specialized care team of cardiologists, nurses, and health coaches to deliver the right treatments at the right time to more patients. Its program provides care anywhere to help patients stay on track, and has been shown to drive high levels of engagement while also achieving medication optimization in shorter periods of time – highlighted by results for at-risk patients from underserved communities. The health coaches provide additional support by addressing socioeconomic barriers to care like arranging prescription affordability assistance, providing condition education to improve health literacy, and coordinating prescription delivery by mail to ensure members receive their medications.

For its part, Guidehealth, based in Dallas, TX, is an advanced technology-driven health services platform that partners with health systems and clinical networks to bring scale and predictable performance to value-based care across all lines of business. The physician-led company augments existing primary care capacity using innovative AI-based protocols, virtually embedded Healthguides, and a meticulously designed framework to predict those patients most in need of support in and beyond the exam room.

Story Health is a digital health company transforming specialty care delivery. With a technology-enabled and human-powered approach, its stated mission is to transform each patient’s care journey by enabling clinicians and institutions to implement and scale continuous specialty care delivery to every patient with heart disease, leaving no patient behind. Story Health works with many of the most prestigious health systems across the country, including ChristianaCare, Intermountain Health, and Saint Luke’s Health System in addition to many leading at-risk providers.

More information, www.guidehealth.com, www.StoryHealth.com