(Image source: The Helper Bees’ Virtual Assessment web page.)

The Helper Bees, an Austin, Texas-based provider of intelligent, technology-enabled home care services, has launched virtual home nurse assessments to assist caregivers, clinicians, and insurers in overcoming challenges related to delivering quality home care while battling the risk of transmission of COVID-19 or Coronavirus.

The company characterizes the launch as a response to the strain on the current care delivery paradigm experienced by those reliant on home care services, including insurers and providers of healthcare, long-term care (LTC), workers’ compensation, and disability insurance (DI), the ongoing global pandemic is straining the current care delivery paradigm. As a necessary component of the claims process and the central tool for developing a claimant/patient care plan, it is impossible to eliminate all home health visits or assessments. The Helper Bees’ virtual home health assessments, which allow for the virtual gathering of accurate information on a homecare recipient with a minimized risk of infection transmission for both clinician and care-recipient, seek to bridge that critical care gap.

“The Helper Bees swiftly deploys technology and services to assist providers and insurers who are protecting our most vulnerable population,” comments Char Hu, Ph.D., CEO, The Helper Bees. “We accelerated the release of this solution to extend the critical data gathering abilities of the assessment, such as determining the social support network, physical condition of the home, cognitive screening, and physical limitations of the care-recipient, in a safe, responsible way.”

Real-Time Updates to Questionnaires

The true power of the virtual assessment is in the ability to rapidly respond and adapt to changing scenarios, such as the COVID-19 outbreak, according to Hu. The Helper Bees’ digital assessment enables insurers to make real-time updates to questionnaires, thereby improving the nimbleness and relevance of the data gathered via the assessment. The Helper Bees says its assessment toolkit has been utilized for over 26 years by some of the largest global insurers.

Through the recent acquisition of Dimensions, a nurse care management and assessment company, The Helper Bees extended caregiver matching and digital claims tools, and created what it asserts is the only full-stack solution to home health care. The acquisition of Dimensions’ nationwide network of registered nurses, and the company’s subsequent digital transformation, is consistent with The Helper Bees’ mission to transform traditional home care. This reinforces the move to decentralize care delivery away from hospitals, skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, and back to the home, leading to reduced infection risk and better outcomes at a reduced cost.

Destination AI: The Advent of Augmented Automated Underwriting