Arches Health Plan launches mobile health app from Symptomly: Asthma Tracker for its Members and Providers

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Arches Health Plan announced today that it has partnered with Symptomly to provide a more integrated care strategy to asthmatic members.

In the United States there are currently over 25 million Asthmatics, or 1 in every 12 people is suffering from Asthma. Of those, 2.1 million will be admitted to a hospital or emergency room this year. The estimated medical costs for asthmatics patients can be as high as $60 million dollars nationwide. Symptomly provides a comprehensive platform through which patients can manage their asthmatic symptoms with their healthcare provider on the go, or from home using any smartphone, or computer. The functionality, and ease of use will allow Arches' members to better understand, and manage their health, and may help keep them out of the emergency room. 

Arches Health Plan has partnered with Symptomly to empower asthmatics to work with their doctors to better manage their asthma and keep their healthcare costs down.  Symptomly sends a weekly electronic survey to moderate and severe asthmatics, whose response puts them into a green, yellow or red category and alerts them and their doctor if they approach the "red" zone.  Symptomly's innovative approach has been shown to reduce asthma–related hospital and emergency room admissions by as much as 98%.

The Arches executive team has focused on creating meaningful telemedicine solutions for our members since day one. Vice President of Provider Network Development, Josh Nelson said, "Early on Arches founders understood that to truly bend the cost curve they would need to provide innovative solutions to both our members and providers. Telemedicine solutions like Symptomly allow us to facilitate more effective treatments.  

"We are excited to partner with Arches Health Plan to provide mobile health solutions to Arches members.  Arches is a thought leader in leveraging technology to engage their members and improve their quality of care.  Our symptom management platform can dramatically reduce health costs and help patients stay out of the hospital" said Derek Bereit, CEO of Symptomly.

ABOUT ARCHES HEALTH PLAN:

Arches Health Plan is a member-governed, non-profit health insurance option for Utah residents. The company offers individuals, small businesses and large groups lower-cost, high-quality care with a focus on developing cost transparency, increased efficiency, and its unique member-governance structure. Plan members may directly participate by electing the board of directors, become board members themselves and provide input for quality improvement, cost management, and service delivery. Arches plans are marketed through ArchesHealth.org, appointed brokers, the Federal Marketplace Exchange, and Utah's Shop Exchange Avenue H.

ABOUT SYMPTOMLY:

The Symptomly platform is a clinically-validated, web-based dashboard, mobile app and communication portal for primary care providers and patients to effectively track patient-entered health symptoms. Its first product is Asthma Tracker, a patient-entered data system for child asthma, developed by researchers at the U and Intermountain Healthcare's Primary Children's Medical Center. The platform has over $4 million in current and previous research — validating a reduction in child asthma re-admissions from 40 percent (nationally) to only 2.3 percent.

SOURCE Aarches Community Health Care