Bicycle Health, a telehealth-focused medication-assisted therapy (MAT) treatment startup, is deepening its partnership with Bamboo Health to get access to better data on its patients.
On Wednesday, the companies announced that Bicycle Health, which focuses on treating opioid-use disorder, will now use Bamboo Health’s Pings and Spotlights solutions. Boston-based Bicycle Health already uses Bamboo Health’s prescription drug monitoring program platform.
“Our partnership with Bamboo Health comes at a critical time — the insights that the Pings and Spotlights solutions provide are invaluable as we work to build value-based care partnerships with health plans and more importantly, improve treatment and outcomes for those recovering from opioid use disorder,” Ankit Gupta, CEO and founder of Bicycle Health, said in a news release.
Lousiville, Kentucky-based Bamboo Health coordinates a vast amount of patient data including connecting 52 of the 54 state- and territory-based prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) to about 1 million clinicians, more than 25,000 pharmacies and thousands of hospitals. It also provides patient care coordination services that have touched 43 million patients’ care.
The Pings and Spotlight solutions will help Bicycle Health get an idea of the impact of their care across other care settings which a vital challenge for behavioral providers, especially in the addiction treatment space, as value-based care continues to enter the industry.
The Pings solution will give Bicycle Health will access to real-time notifications whenever its patients experience care events to better track patients’ care journeys. The Spotlights solution provides interactive, real-time dashboard measures of high-priority performance metrics — such as admission, discharge, and transfer (ADT) data and patient outcome data — allowing the company to analyze are utilization in other care settings.
“Over the past two years, our mission of increasing access to effective OUD treatment has become even more urgent,” Gupta said. “The pandemic’s toll on mental health and addiction has been profound – and in its wake – thousands of people are left in need of treatment options.”
In 2021, the company estimates that MAT and supporting services prevented 355 opioid overdoses and helped about 15,000 patients overcome problematic opioid use. Bicycle Health’s services include telehealth visits, prescription delivery and management, in-home diagnostics, peer support and psychotherapy.
“Bamboo Heath is committed to delivering solutions that support real-time care coordination and promote interoperability in order to improve outcomes for patients and help combat the mental health and substance use crisis that has cut too many lives short,” Rob Cohen, CEO of Bamboo Health, said in the release.
Many in the addiction treatment space hold up MAT as a vital tool in treating addiction, especially within the context of opioids. However, about two-thirds of the country has no or low levels of access to MAT treatment providers, according to a 2020 report from the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector Genera.
These providers also face steep restrictions on how many patients they are able to care for — even though the number of providers who can provide MAT is at an all-time high, the report states.
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