(NEWARK, NJ and CHICAGO, IL – May 20, 2020) – NowPow today announced that its personalized community referral platform has been deployed by Horizon Healthcare Services, Inc. – New Jersey’s oldest and largest health insurer – as the technology infrastructure for Horizon Neighbors in Health, a newly launched initiative that aims to address impeding Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) across the state of New Jersey.
NowPow’s technology is being used as a single platform to coordinate and track referrals and vital data among University Hospital, Hackensack Meridian Health, RWJBarnabas Health, Atlantic Health System, St. Joseph’s Health and Trenton Health Team. More than 24,000 members across Commercial, Medicaid and Medicare Advantage throughout 70 ZIP codes are being targeted for inclusion in this 3-year, $25 million initiative.
The Horizon Neighbors in Health model employs up to 60 community health workers – who are hired from within the communities they serve – to connect members/patients with benefits they may not otherwise have known about, like mail-order prescriptions, telemedicine visits, mental health opportunities and social services, like food banks, rental assistance and other programs.
NowPow’s platform supports participants in the referral process by building and managing community resource networks. With a focus on referrals that address basic needs and chronic disease management, NowPow partners with health care providers and community-based organizations to identify these needs, provide highly matched referrals, facilitate closed loop referrals, support bi-directional patient engagement and document referral outcomes.
“Having the right technology infrastructure in place is a critical component of the Horizon Neighbors in Health initiative,” said Valerie Harr, Horizon’s director of Community Health, Enterprise. “We are working with NowPow to build and manage community resource networks across the entire state of New Jersey, so our community health workers can easily connect people to highly matched resources and services, and we – along with our other partners – can track, measure and act on outcomes at the individual and macro level. We selected NowPow as our technology partner because they share our commitment to cross-sector collaboration, hyper-personalization and hyper-localization – and their passion is unparalleled.”
In an interview with NJ Spotlight, Horizon executives said that the spread of COVID-19 underscored the importance of this program itself, which is why they decided to press forward with the program in April.
“How could we not?” added Harr. “What we see is that the coronavirus has exposed all these inequities and health disparities that this program is designed to address.”
The decision to expand this program comes on the heels of a successful pilot in Newark that tracked outcomes for 354 individuals. Since that program launched, Horizon has seen a 24% reduction in emergency room visits among the group, a 35% increase in behavioral care visits, and their cost of care declined by a quarter.
“We are honored to be part of this expanded initiative with organizations and leaders who not only care deeply but drive hard to achieve real impact in their communities,” said Rachel Kohler, CEO, NowPow. “As we continue to build resource connections across large populations and gather insights, we are confident we can continue to demonstrate the value this brings to all. This unique collaboration can and should serve as a model for other communities.”
About Horizon Healthcare Services, Inc
Horizon Healthcare Services, Inc., New Jersey’s oldest and largest health insurer, is a tax-paying, not-for-profit health services corporation, providing a wide array of medical, dental, vision and prescription insurance products and services. Horizon Healthcare Services, Inc. serves 3.5 million members with headquarters in Newark and offices in Wall, Mt. Laurel, and Hopewell. Learn more at www.HorizonBlue.com.
About NowPow
NowPow’s personalized community referral platform reflects the current COVID-19 operating status for more than 45,000 community services in 15 geographies. NowPow’s referrals are highly matched and filtered, making it easy to connect people to just the right community resources so everyone can stay well, meet basic needs, manage with illness and care for others. NowPow’s unique population health solution also provides deep community resource and referral insights to support process improvement, network health and quality, and care access and experience. Find more information at www.NowPow.com.
Contact: Patty Keiler, patty@collaborate.health, 312-550-5394