Lucet, a behavioral health company, acquires Emcara Health, a medical group based on home care value, companies announced on Tuesday.
The terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
Overland Park, based in Kansas, works with employers and health plans to provide support for mental health and drug addiction. The company’s care team assesses members and associates them with care that best meets their needs. It works in the 50 states.
Emcara Health, formerly called Pophealthcare (a Guidewell company), also works with health plans and provides primary care and support and annual wellness controls in patient houses. He can help patients manage chronic conditions, facilitate laboratory work and support advanced care planning. He has a care team that includes a medical director, a supplier of advanced practice, authorized nurses and community health workers.
As a combined business, Lucet and Emcara will be able to integrate the support of mental health with physical health. This is necessary because many patients with chronic diseases have concomitant mental health.
“If you look at the chronic comorbid population of Medicare, around 40% of members of Medicare Advantage have at least one untreated behavioral health problem,” said Shana Hoffman, president and chief executive officer of Lucet, in an interview. “And then if someone has both a comorbid condition with behavioral health, there is an increase of 49% of medical spending. We are really looking for ways to go to members who stimulate medical spending and to be able to put behavioral health interventions in their hands.”
To begin with, combined companies will pilot the new model of care integrated into their overlapping markets, then will end up supporting more patients. This includes the evaluation of behavioral health needs and the binding of patients to care during home visits and virtual.
“Thanks to this acquisition, [Emcara’s] A proven model for home care solutions will be used in combination with Lucet’s behavioral expertise, bringing new integrated care models on the market that will have a substantial clinical impact on how the complex chronic and behavioral conditions of members are successfully managed in the future.
To measure the success of the acquisition, Lucet will follow the number of Emcara home assessment members accessing behavioral health services, readmission rates, emergency visits and total cost of care, said Hoffman. The company also follows the number of healthy days that patients have at home.
The remaining health costs, Hoffman said that payers will look for suppliers who offer a full range of services. This is what Lucet hopes to accomplish with this acquisition of Emcara.
“We think we are starting with this piece of behavioral health, which has been built on for 30 years, then being able to add these other parts just gives us a very good position, especially since you plan to manage these conditions for members of the medical and behavioral spectrum,” she said.
Photo: Mikdam, Getty Images
