SCAN Health Plan, MedArrive Bring COVID Boosters to Homebound Patients

SCAN Health Plan is partnering with MedArrive to provide COVID-19 booster shots and influenza vaccination to homebound beneficiaries throughout Los Angeles and Orange Counties in California. 

MedArrive leverages telehealth, emergency medical services (EMS) and other skilled providers to provide a range of home-based services, chronic condition management, transitional care, readmission prevention, urgent care, and palliative care, among others. SCAN is providing the vaccine at no cost to members, and the health plan’s EMT partners will also administer the injections to family caregivers and other eligible individuals in the household.

The booster program is a follow-up to an earlier SCAN/MedArrive effort to ensure the homebound had access to COVID vaccines.

“Last go round, we took a look at the percentage of our homebound members that were unvaccinated, and that was kind of the impetus that sparked us to launch our in-home vaccination,” SCAN Health Plan Chief Pharmacy Officer Sharon Jhawar told Hospice News. “With the flu season on the rise right now, as well as boosters having average momentum, that’s what sparked us to go ahead and do both in this round.”

SCAN covers more than 220,000 beneficiaries. Between 3,000 and 4,000 of those members are designated as homebound by Medicare.

Nearly 2 million adults older than 65 are considered homebound in the United States, according to The Commonwealth Fund. Many of these patients have multiple chronic conditions or are cognitively impaired and represent the population that is most vulnerable to COVID-19.

The companies’ initial vaccine program also helped reduce vaccination disparities among underserved populations. The vaccination rate gap among Latinx members versus Caucasians was reduced to 4%, down from 11%, according to Jhawar. As part of this process, SCAN considered Community Needs Index scores.

“Based on where you live, your zip code can determine the potential for your needing more kinds of social support,” Jhawar said. “The higher the Community Needs Index, the more likely you’re vulnerable. We reduced the vaccination gap in those with the highest Community Needs Index to 8%, down from 16%.”

MedArrive recently received $25 million in Series A funding, with venture capital firm Section 32 leading the round. The company plans to apply the infusion of capital to spur product development and geographic expansion. 

Additional participants in the Series A round included new investors 7wireVentures and Leaps by Bayer, as well as some of the company’s existing stakeholders, Define Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and Redesign Health.

“The expansion of our program with SCAN is a perfect example of the power of the platform and our ability to have an outside impact on some of our most vulnerable populations.” said Dan Trigub, CEO and co-founder of MedArrive.

Since the company launched in Dec. 2020, MedArrive has doubled the size of its workforce, expanded into new states and facilitated thousands of home visits. The company currently operates in California, Florida, New Jersey, North Carolina and Texas.

SCAN Group, parent company of SCAN Health Plan, itself invested an undisclosed sum in MedArrive earlier this year. The two companies have plans for future collaborations, including a second pilot program in which bilingual nurse practitioners help patients with medication adherence.

The decision to invest followed the two organizations’ first vaccine program for the homebound.

“We use that first business-use case to better understand how we can leverage health care professionals such as EMTs to go in the home,” Jhawar said. We found that very beneficial when you have eyes and ears in the home helping folks, and so we decided to invest in them.”