NEW ORLEANS — UnitedHealthcare and Ready Responders, an on-demand network of health care practitioners, is launching a new pilot program this spring in Louisiana that aims to reduce unnecessary emergency room visits and lower hospital admissions by providing a variety of at-home health services.
Ready Responders is staffed by a team of local emergency medical technicians (EMTs), paramedics, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, physicians and physician assistants who can be dispatched once a call is placed to Ready Responders’ hotline. The program will help bring care right to people’s homes, so they do not have to spend time waiting in an emergency room to be treated for nonemergent or nonlife-threatening medical issues, and the service costs less than what an ER charges.
UnitedHealthcare’s Medicaid plan in Louisiana has experienced a 15 percent increase in the number of emergency room visits using ambulatory care from 2015 to 2017; using Ready Responders can increase access to care, reduce reliance on the ER, and lower the state’s health care costs for Medicaid beneficiaries.
“Working with Ready Responders will give UnitedHealthcare plan participants the convenience and peace of mind knowing they can receive quality, timely care in the comfort of their own homes from specially trained medical professionals based in their own community,” said CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Louisiana Allison Young. “We are grateful for the collaborative relationships we share with care providers like Ready Responders who are committed to improving the health care experience for the people we are privileged to serve.”
The pilot program will initially focus on triage care and will encourage people to connect with their primary care physician for appropriate follow up. In some cases, Ready Responders will be able to help patients arrange transport to his or her doctor’s office if the patient does not have transportation.
People in the New Orleans area enrolled in UnitedHealthcare Medicaid, Employer and Individual health plans will have access to:
Ready Responders Hotline: Plan participants will be able to call the hotline about an illness or injury and can request a practitioner to visit their home. Upon arrival, the health professional assesses the patient’s condition and determines what type of triage care is needed onsite, or whether care may be needed in another setting such as urgent care, their primary care provider or the ER. Ready Responders does not replace 9-1-1 for life-threatening emergencies.
Telehealth Services: Ready Responder medics who visit a patient’s home can connect the patient to qualified local physicians via the medic’s mobile device or tablet, extending the reach of the community’s medical services without the patient having to leave the home.
“We are proud to work with UnitedHealthcare to improve access to care, all while making it convenient and lowering costs for the people it serves,” said Co-Founder and CEO of Ready Responders Justin Dangel. “Our services help reduce the number of emergency visits and decrease hospital utilization rates among people with chronic illnesses.”
UnitedHealthcare serves more than 870,000 Louisianans enrolled in employer, individual, Medicare and Medicaid health plans with a care provider network of over 18,000 physicians and 160 hospitals and other care facilities statewide.
