Clover Health and Quartet Health partner to tackle senior mental health

The goal is to increase the support and resources for Clover members with serious mental illness

While everyone's mental health suffered during the pandemic, seniors were hit especially hard: they saw a 13% suicide rate increase from 2018 to 2020. This was on top of the loneliness and isolation they experiencing before even COVID: in 2018, 34% of seniors reported feeling a lack of companionship and 27% reported feeling isolated from others; in March 2020, the percentage that felt a lack of companionship grew to 41%, while 35% said they felt less companionship than before.

Yet, a recent study showed that psychiatry access in Medicare Advantage networks is actually worse than in many Medicaid networks, making it increasingly difficult for seniors to be able to get the care they need.

That's why Quartet Health, a company that helps patients to get mental healthcare by matching with professionals based on their own preferences and needs, and Clover Health, which uses data analysis to lower the cost of health insurance for seniors using Medicare Advantage, announced a partnership this week with the goal of increasing the support and resources provided to Clover members with serious mental illness (SMI) through Clover Home Care, the company's home-based care delivery unit.

Clover Health deploys a software platform called the Clover Assistant, which aggregates millions of health data points every day, including from claims data, medical charts, medication data, diagnostics data and EHRs. it then uses machine learning to synthesize that data with member-specific information, with the goal of giving primary care doctors personalized insights into their patient's health. That means offering suggestions for what medication to prescribe and in what dosages, as well determining the need for tests or referrals, in order to improve health outcomes and save money.

The Clover Assistant then uses those savings to provide patients with what it calls “Obvious” PPO and HMO plans, which are more affordable than standard plans.  

Clover Home Care, meanwhile, offers in-home care access, medication support, mental and physical care coordination, as well as local community resource and transportation. Patients have access to care teams, both in-home and virtual, which are led by physicians and nurse practitioners trained in both palliative care and family medicine, along with care coordinators, social workers, medical assistants and dedicated case managers.

Quartet's Whole Health program, meanwhile, offers an integrated physical and behavioral health model. At no additional out-of-pocket cost, it offers in-person and virtual visits with  providers, 24/7 access to the care team, care coordination for both physical and mental health needs, medication management and support, and support with community resources, including services for things like transportation, housing, or food assistance.

As per the partnership, Quartet will use its care teams to augment Clover Home Care’s capabilities, while Quartet’s clinicians will use the Clover Assistant platform to deliver care to the Clover patients under its care. At the same time, Clover will use Quartet Health’s Whole Health program to provide additional support to members suffering from SMI. 

Clover Home Care with Whole Health by Quartet Health will be available to eligible members in New Jersey for no additional cost starting on January 1, 2025. 

“Through Clover Home Care, we are delivering impactful, proactive support to our members via a high-touch model built on top of the computing power of Clover Assistant. This allows our highly skilled and compassionate care teams to have a holistic view of each patient’s individual needs and address them accordingly,” Brady Priest, CEO of Clover Home Care, said in a statement.

“We’re confident that additional behavioral health support for our SMI cohort will increase the quality of life for these members, while continuing to reduce unnecessary spend.”

(Image source: aceseniorcare.com)