Aetna Better Health of Virginia Collaborates with MedZed to Bring Integrated Clinical Care and Social Supports Directly to High-risk Medicaid Beneficiaries
April 19, 2023
Aetna Better Health of Virginia, a CVS Health company, has partnered with MedZed, an integrated care provider focused on serving high-risk patients, to bring complex care and social supports to Aetna’s Virginia Medicaid members with chronic conditions, directly in their homes and communities.
The partnership is designed to reduce health disparities by identifying and engaging high-need individuals with complex clinical conditions and social determinants of health (SDoH), and who often face challenges accessing and navigating the healthcare system. MedZed serves as an extra layer of support, designing and implementing a comprehensive, holistic program of care.
“For many of our members, including those with chronic conditions, receiving coordinated care where they are is essential for improving their health and well-being,” said Joel Gray, CEO of Aetna Better Health of Virginia. “Our collaboration with MedZed will help our members overcome barriers to care by directly connecting them to clinical care and social supports that can improve health outcomes and make a difference in their lives.”
In MedZed’s facilitated telehealth model, Community Health Navigators (CHNs) and nurses work with these members in their homes (or wherever they are), delivering hands-on care while linking them to MedZed’s primary care providers via an integrated telehealth platform. They also provide and coordinate social services, behavioral health and other resources, and work closely with Aetna to make sure members’ interrelated clinical, behavioral health, and social needs are being met. In this way, the teams bring fully integrated medical care directly to individuals, helping them stay healthy at home and avoid repeated emergency room visits and hospital stays.
“We are excited to bring our complementary capabilities to collaborate with Aetna to improve the health and well-being of the highest-risk members,” said Scott Schnell, CEO of MedZed. “Our teams excel at locating members and building relationships of trust with them—even with individuals who may feel disenfranchised from the system. Our teams not only deliver care in person, but also are in touch with their community and resources, and they are dedicated to helping their members get the care and support they need to live healthier lives.”
The partnership launched in January 2023 to serve members who reside in Richmond, Petersburg, Roanoke, Northern Virginia, and Virginia Beach/Norfolk counties.
About MedZed
MedZed, based in Atlanta with operations in eight states, partners with health insurers and other risk-bearing entities to coordinate and deliver social supports and telehealth-enabled, integrated clinical care to individuals with chronic conditions—at home or wherever they are. MedZed focuses exclusively on serving high-need individuals, who represent five percent of health plans’ members, but account for 50 percent of expenses. MedZed’s locally based field teams successfully locate and engage more than 40 percent of referred members, many of whom have not responded to traditional outreach efforts. MedZed’s rapidly scalable, cost-effective solutions provide high-touch service across geographies and support health plans in advancing health equity, reducing inappropriate utilization, and meeting regulatory requirements.