LOUISVILLE & LEXINGTON, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Individuals with special healthcare needs, such as those with disabilities and in the foster care system, face barriers in accessing the care they need and achieving their best overall health. Holistic and systematic disparities have led to an increase in episodic and emergency care, causing poorer health, lower quality of life, and reduced independence.
Aetna Better Health of Kentucky, Avēsis, and technology provider MapHabit have launched a pilot to improve the health of the most vulnerable residents of Kentucky. By deploying readily available technologies, this partnership is empowering members and closing communication gaps between members, caregivers, and care teams.
Through the partnership with MapHabit, we are providing valuable habit-building tools to bridge the gaps in care coordination that exist within the current system. Our goal focuses on enabling members to build durable hygiene habits, encourage them to visit their providers, increase comfort and ease anxiety at dental and medical visits, and improve overall independence and quality of life. Through this system, we can support members in building additional basic social and fine motor skills, demonstrate how to provide self-care, and empower them to communicate with healthcare professionals.
“Our mission is person-centric; we guide individuals, organizations, and communities to wellness by providing innovative, multidimensional, tailored offerings with a personal touch,” said Don Trainor, Care Transformation Senior Manager at Avēsis. “We are excited to broaden our partnership with Aetna Better Health of Kentucky and MapHabit to create communities and systems of care where everyone can have access to quality healthcare and services while being treated with dignity.”
Aetna Better Health of Kentucky and Avēsis’ approach addresses whole-person health across the continuum of care, coordinating the complexities within a care team, behavioral traits, and physical limitations. The pilot consists of the following:
- Training providers to care for the unique needs of each member
- Empowering ongoing communication between the member and their care team
- Enabling the completion of functional behavioral assessments and care plans
- Improving health through increased access to care delivery and self-care enablement
- Improving the quality of life through increased independence and decreased caregiver burden
- Identifying value-based structures to enable meaningful encounters between provider and members
“The MapHabit System is a neuroscience-based, member-engagement platform that helps people with intellectual disabilities live out their daily lives by providing powerful visual cues that help them complete tasks we take for granted,” said Matt Golden, Chief Executive Officer at MapHabit. “We are excited to collaborate with members and their circle of support, to personalize visual maps that incorporate dental hygiene habits, along with improving dental visit experience using graduated exposure.”
In addition to improving oral health outcomes, the pilot will improve utilization within the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) network and Avēsis care managers using secure messaging and access to personalized wellness plans within the MapHabit System.
“We are deeply committed to the whole health of our members, and we continually seek innovative programming that can better support all the populations we serve, including members with special health care needs who may be at higher risk for medical and dental complications,” said Paige Mankovich, CEO of Aetna Better Health of Kentucky. “Through this collaboration, we are leveraging emerging technologies through the MapHabit system’s intuitive tools to elevate access to care and support the needs of our most vulnerable members.”
To improve the relationship between the payor, therapists/treatment providers, and the member, the partnership is driving greater utilization and consistency across other provider services. Areas of interest and support include activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental ADLs (iADL), and access to the community (including employment and social interaction the individual member is working on, achieving in, and needs additional support to achieve).
Measuring success for a better tomorrow
To ensure findings from this pilot program further special health care needs access programs, Avēsis and Aetna Better Health of Kentucky are committed to sharing the results from this pilot.
The teams are excited about the program’s ability to provide enhanced access and services to a vulnerable population and the opportunity to scale this partnership and shared experience in Kentucky and beyond.
About Avēsis
Avēsis believes in creating communities where lives are lived more fully. One of the nation’s leading dental, vision, and specialty benefits providers for more than 40 years, we deliver the highest quality of care by building and nurturing local provider networks and community partnerships. Our member-centered care model aims to bridge and close significant gaps in health equity while guiding members and their communities to wellness. Learn more about how we are redefining specialty benefit solutions that serve the needs of governments, companies, and individuals at avesis.com.
