With the preponderance of technological solutions helping humans live easier each day, one nuisance of life has somehow survived, waiting in the doctor’s office. Now, a company named Omada is looking to cut down the amount of time people spend in doctors’ offices by using technology to deliver some services right to patients’ homes. CNBC’s Christina Farr reports:
Omada now has 550 companies paying for its services that they provide to customers. Those clients include Costco, Cigna and Lowe’s, as well as more than 35 health plans.
Unlike many other digital health start-ups, Omada focused early on research and published 11 clinical studies to become a full medical provider, rather than just a tech company. It also has regulatory experts on staff to navigate the complex health-care market.
“Omada seemed to do it right from the start,” added Chris Hogg, chief commercial officer of Propeller Health, a digital therapeutics company that was acquired by ResMed last year. “They focused on a specific and important user problem and brought both great design and also evidence generation.”
More to do
There’s still work to do to establish its credibility. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently determined that it would not pay for digitally-administered diabetes prevention programs, like Omada’s, for Medicare patients. Duffy said he’s hopeful that regulators will eventually come around and, in the meantime, the company is working with some private Medicare plans and has some contracts with state Medicaid plans.
“I’m approaching this with a spirit of inclusion, as I think there’s a growing reckoning that consumers want digital,” Duffy said. “That’s the reality that folks are up against. There may be an old model and old ways of doing things that stick around for some time, but there will also be a new way and we want to be part of that.”
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