ALLENTOWN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PursueCare, one of the leading national providers for virtual substance use disorder and mental health treatment, today announced the launch of virtual care services and outpatient clinic services in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
PursueCare also announced the opening of a full-service outpatient clinic in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The company’s clinic and unique hybridized service model, which combines both in-person and virtual care treatment, has obtained a program license from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs for treatment of substance use disorders, including medication-assisted treatment of opioid use disorder with buprenorphine. Later this month, the company will open another full-service clinic in Voorhees, New Jersey.
The clinics, and the company’s virtual telemedicine services, have earned accreditation from the Joint Commission, an independent, nonprofit organization with accreditation requirements that address performance in specific areas, ensuring that care, treatment, and services are safe and effective. By voluntarily undergoing evaluation, the company’s facility and services received the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® – an internationally recognized symbol of quality.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, PursueCare has continuously analyzed how patients are engaging with its services and what has proven most effective at addressing the growing opioid epidemic facing under-resourced regions of the United States. PursueCare has seen a 72% transition into treatment rate for individuals referred into their programs from collaborating hospitals and health systems.
“The high health care costs commonly associated with people who use drugs are not for treatment they want or need,” said Nick Mercadante, PursueCare’s CEO. “Instead, because substance use is highly stigmatized, people fall outside traditional routes to better health and end up in a cycle, overutilizing high-cost ER visits and inpatient stays. These avenues rarely result in transition into long-term recovery options. The continuum of care between the ‘front doors’ for people with substance use disorder and the effective outpatient care they need is broken. We are working to fix this.”
The Allentown, Pennsylvania, clinic is strategically located in a building adjacent to Lehigh Valley Health Network’s 17th Street Hospital, where a skybridge can take patients directly from inpatient and emergency departments to the clinic, located on the third floor of the building. PursueCare has been working to collaborate with allied mental health programs at the health system and has formed a linkage collaboration with its community health center chain Valley Health Partners. The programs intend to provide a rapid, technology-enabled transition into PursueCare programs for providers and patients alike.
“The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the existing addiction and overdose epidemic,” said Veronica Gonzalez, CEO of Valley Health Partners. “The need for both, substance use disorder and mental health resources in our community continues to rise. We are proudly partnering with organizations, including PursueCare, to remove barriers, meet patients where they are, and build stronger and healthier communities.”
At the clinic, patients can be examined and introduced to the treatment program in-person before following up with virtual care through PursueCare’s phone app. The program offers video visits and secure chat with a multi-disciplinary care team that includes physicians, psychiatric providers, individual and group therapy, at-home drug testing, care coordinators, and more. It also has integrated targeted case management, delivery pharmacy services, and prescribed digital therapeutics, offering patients a comprehensive set of solutions. Both the Pennsylvania and New Jersey clinics will provide resources for people who lack a mobile device to conduct virtual visits.
The model will be expanded in 2022, with near-term plans to establish virtual care and health system collaborations in Delaware, Maryland, New York, Kansas, and other states. PursueCare currently serves patients across 12 states, and its programs are covered by major health insurance plans, Medicaid, Medicare, and managed care plans that cover approximately 38 million people.
About PursueCare:
PursueCare offers evidence-based virtual addiction recovery and mental health treatment through a mobile application. We work with individuals and partner with health systems, universities, employers, and health plans, by offering transitional behavioral health treatment focusing on those who experience significant barriers to care. For more information, visit www.pursuecare.com.
The PursueCare Allentown, Pennsylvania clinic is located at 401 N 17th St. Suite 308. Its phone number is 610.230.7980. The PursueCare Voorhees, New Jersey clinic is located at 1000 White Horse Road, Suite 502. Its phone number is 856.272.1090.
