Medibank aims to save health system billions in tie-up with US tech player Amwell

Medibank’s Amplar Health is creating a digital assistant to coach people into healthier habits and save Australia’s health system billions of dollars a year.

Medibank's Amplar Health has partnered with US tech company Amwell to coach customers into healthier habits.

Medibank’s Amplar Health has signed a deal with US tech company Amwell to create digital health assistants for its customers to help curb a range of chronic diseases – a move that it says could save Australia’s health systems billions of dollars.

Amplar is Medibank’s health services business, operating telehealth consultations and at home care. Its partnership with Amwell is focused on preventative treatment, by “coaching” customers into healthier habits.

Amplar hasn’t disclosed the financial terms of the deal but said it is part of Medibank’s broader plan to enrol about 50,000 onto preventative programs by next year.

Amplar’s Robert Read said the top 10 chronic conditions in Australia contributed to 89 per cent of deaths and 66 per cent of the “total burden of disease”. He said the prevalence of preventable chronic disease continues to rise and costs the Australian healthcare system billions of dollars a year.

“Virtual solutions that allow individuals to set personal health goals, make positive lifestyle changes and sustain those changes over time are crucial to the sustainability of the broader health system,” he said.

Amplar Health’s lead Robert Read.

Preventative health and longevity medicine has become a lucrative business. Everlab – the creation of a doctor, a former Airwallex staffer and nutrition entrepreneur – currently charges up to $15,000 for its longevity enhancing services, and raised $3m late last year to catapult itself into the mainstream.

Celebrity physician Peter Attia has also been spreading the word on Disney+ documentary series Limitless and via his book Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity – even prompting actor Chris Hemsworth to reassess his life and become even more healthy.

For Medibank preventative health is a way of combating healthcare inflation by avoiding expensive hospital treatment.

Peak body Private Health Australia revealed that its annual high-cost claims data shows that health fund members are at times staying in hospital for more than 100 days because of diabetes, with costs sometimes exceeding $100,000 a patient for each of these episodes.

Since 2015, the total cost of these diabetes claims for insurers has soared 32 per cent from $33.9m to $44.9m.

“Funding of health care in this country has necessarily been focused on delivering care for the sick, but there is a great opportunity to invest in preventing illness in the first place,” Mr Read said.

“Hospital admissions arising from preventable disease continue to climb, putting hospitals under pressure and risking poor outcomes for patients.

“We need to be smarter about healthcare delivery and embrace technology to enable widespread access to preventative programs across our communities.”

Amplar’s partnership with Amwell – which has a market value of $US361m – involves a health check with a registered nurse before a customer is enrolled into the program.

“Customers will be supported by a digital assistant, and where needed, a health coach, to ensure they achieve the best outcomes from the program,” Mr Read said.

Amwell chief strategy officer Murray Brozinsky said the company’s automated and digital care technologies have been launched successfully in the US and UK.

Mr Brozinsky said it has a 93 per cent patient satisfaction rate among almost 700,000 people who have used the technology through the UK’s NHS mental health programs.

Additionally, Amwell’s online behavioural health program, SilverCloud has a 94 per cent patient satisfaction rate among the more than 12,000 people in Ireland who have used the program for mental health care and support, he said.