Yahoo Finance 'This is the cusp of a very fast moving wave into the home:' Hoy Health CEO on telehealth
Improving cultural competence in health care is not just about being able to speak a patient's language. It's about engaging patients and finding solutions that fit their lifestyle, customs and schedules, says Mario Anglada, CEO of Hoy Health, which offers telehealth services for $25, drugs priced between $10 and $40, and a voucher system to gift drugs to friends and family abroad.
Founded in 2017, Hoy focused primarily on the LatinX/Hispanic demographic. As a result of the pandemic, however the company is expanding beyond Spanish speakers and building up its bench of partners to do so, Anglada told Yahoo Finance.
[Read more: Startup uses remittances to remove 'time and distance' from health care]
"Our clients on the health care side ... started to see a need for remote health monitoring. So during the pandemic what we were able to do was quickly shift and deploy ... a whole host of about 14 different devices that would assist our client base with their monitoring of patients in a really supportive environments," Anglada told Yahoo Finance.
To date, the Hoy Health has been a cash business, but is now working with insurers to cover services, Anglada said.
"A lot of our clients don't have the financial burden placed on them. Now what we're seeing is a very accelerated path to adoption," Anglada said.
To date, the business has been a cash business, but it's now is working with insurers to cover services, as more partners see the technology as the wave of the future, Anglada said.
In addition, the Federal Communication Commission is providing grants to help support telehealth efforts — since the pandemic brought to light the benefits and ease of use. Congress appropriated $200 million through the CARES Act.
"Over the pandemic, what we saw — and we were lucky already to have our first national contract with an HMO — is that the payer system has seen that this is the future. And now they're incentivizing pilots and projects to prove the case. And when they see the results, the results speak for themselves. And I can tell you this because in our discussions with one of our largest partners, Mayo Clinic, they're giving us signals that say, hey, this is here to stay. And we think that this is the cusp of a very fast moving wave into the home. And we're working with Mayo and others to make this a reality," Anglada said.
Note: Verizon, Yahoo Finance's parent company, works with Hoy Health, to provide telemedicine services to its customers.
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