Healthy.io partners with BCBS Idaho on chronic kidney disease

Photo: Pramote Polyamate/Getty Images

Healthy.io, a health technology company focused on at-home urinalysis and digitized wound care services, has partnered with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Idaho to promote early detection of kidney damage and chronic kidney disease (CKD) by essentially transforming people's smartphones into medical devices.

The collaboration will provide people across the state with access to Healthy.io's Minuteful Kidney test, which recently received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration. Blue Cross of Idaho employees and Medicare Advantage members will be the first to try it, with the test promising instant clinical-grade results that are shared directly with a primary care physician.

Healthy.io U.S. General Manager Paula LeClair said the offering is not a wellness product, but rather turns people's smartphones into devices capable of collecting clinically sound information through its use of color recognition technology. Since taking the same picture at different times of day or in different rooms of the home would result in different lighting, the Minuteful Kidney test interprets and normalizes color, and boasts artificial intelligence that knows how to interpret various hues.

BCBS Idaho went live among its employees first as a means of testing the technology. A broader rollout among Medicare Advantage members will take place this year.

"Respect to Idaho – if they're offering a benefit for their members, they want to offer the same benefit for their employees," said LeClair. "Health plans need to figure out how to get this test done."

EARLY SCREENING

A recent study found that 38% of rural Idahoans reported their primary care physician was between 25-100 miles from their home. This spurred BCBS Idaho to pursue the partnership, with an eye toward increasing access to kidney tests for at-risk Medicare Advantage members across the state.

"COVID opened people's eyes," said LeClair. "People could receive care at home. People were delaying primary care appointments. If we can take a device everyone has at home – a smartphone – if we can make that a medical grade device, and avoid going to a lab, I think we will see a cost reduction."

CKD is referred to as a "silent killer" because it often doesn't have symptoms until very late stages – making it even more critical to detect it early, said LeClair. One in three Americans is at risk, including those with diabetes and hypertension. Yet most don't know they have the condition until it progresses to end-stage renal disease, eventually requiring dialysis and/or a kidney transplant.

"For us, it's all about getting the screening," said LeClair. "The important thing is to get screened. We have very high adherence rates."

Healthy.io has also partnered with the National Kidney Foundation, and the former will direct people to the latter's website to learn more about kidney disease. LeClair said Healthy.io shares a library of content with health plans, and the plans edit them to make sure the tone is right for their members.

The company also sends educational materials to patients before they receive a kit, starting with a letter telling the person they're at risk for kidney disease and will have a test sent to their home.

The innovation is in the delivery, not in the test itself, said LeClair.

"We aren't inventing new tests," she said. "We're not trying to find a new alloy that can solve a new problem. We're trying to find better pathways. The test has been around, we're just making it easier and better to drive adherence.

"We are not disruptors," she said. "We want to work alongside what's there today."
 

Twitter: @JELagasse
Email the writer: Jeff.Lagasse@himssmedia.com