Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM). HUM recently introduced a pilot of Humana Care Support, which offers customized, integrated and coordinated care management services to a specific group of Medicare Advantage members.
Banking on Humana’s prior care management models, the Humana Care Support pilot will utilize clinician care teams to take care of the selected Medicare Advantage members plagued with severe chronic conditions across Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. For the company’s Medicare Advantage members in other states, Humana Care Support will be rolled out in this year itself.
What makes the Humana Care Support noteworthy is its modernized technology and analytics infrastructure. Supported by Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Health Cloud, the care teams will make use of predictive and reactive analytics for facilitating data-enabled personalized and comprehensive care for its members. The teams can also have real-time access to members’ unique and complicated needs on the back of Microsoft’s MSFT cloud technologies Azure and Power BI.
Additionally, enhanced data analytics are likely to bolster the primary and preventive care that the company’s members have already been receiving from their providers.
Moreover, the latest pilot seems to be time opportune since integrated care can be availed by the company’s Medicare Advantage members within the convenience of one’s home through Humana Care Support. Case in point, it has been devised to support coordinated home health, care management visits and virtual visits, which bodes well particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic induced health woes. Since the coronavirus outbreak, people have preferred availing care within home in a bid to curb the virus spread.
Also, Humana Care Support is likely to provide relief to older adults suffering from chronic conditions, who had started staying home from a long time back. If we take into account a growing aging population in the United States who remain susceptible to serious chronic diseases, the latest move can be considered as time opportune. The dire need of addressing the healthcare needs of older adults have been further highlighted by National Council on Aging. Per the same, 80% of older adults are plagued with one minimum chronic condition, while 77% of them suffer from a minimum of two.
Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) health care provider have lost 0.3% in a year compared with the industry’s decline of 2.4%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Furthermore, the health care provider boasts of a strong Medicare business, which has been witnessing growing membership for quite some time. 2020 was no exception to the abovementioned trend as it increased 11% during the year. For 2021, the company expects growth in individual Medicare Advantage membership of around 425,000-475,000 members, suggesting growth of 11-12%.
The business remains well-poised to benefit through constant partnerships and extension of product offerings devised per needs of several communities it serves. Humana has left no stone unturned in its pursuit of bolstering presence across the United States. The company has also facilitated increased use of telehealth services, which enables easy communication between members sitting at home and their healthcare providers. As a result, it has witnessed its telehealth visits shooting up in 2020 compared to the previous years.
Other health care providers, such as UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) UNH and Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI) CI, have also been actively developing their telehealth services.
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