Intermountain Health is taking its partnership with digital specialty care platform Story Health systemwide following a strong heart failure pilot program the pair launched early last year.
That implementation enrolled dozens of Intermountain patients with new heart failure diagnosis into the startup’s model of virtual coaching, biometric monitoring and care team alerts.
The system was rewarded with improved medication optimization, condition recovery among some patients within a brief four-month period and subsequent cost savings. Though the program has "grown considerably" across recent months, the health system said it's now looking to expand on that success for "hundreds of patients" across five different sites.
“Intermountain’s wide reach and diversity of care settings provides the perfect test case to show that, when working together, we can execute a program that drives material patient impacts and improves clinic efficiency,” Story Health CEO and co-founder Tom Stanis said in a release.
The pilot enrolled and followed 35 patients from January to May 2023, according to data on the program shown earlier this year at an American College of Cardiology conference. The virtual-enabled approach significantly improved the patients’ adherence to an optimized medication regimen, and 80% of medication changes did not require an in-person visit. A fifth of the patients showed meaningful improvements in their ejection fraction (a measure of heart function) as well as high engagement scores and quality-of-life scores.
“Intermountain has long been a leader in developing innovative models of care for treating complex patient populations. However, we need to continue to close remaining gaps in care to truly deliver best-in-class cardiology care,” Kaley Graham, executive director of Intermountain Health’s heart and vascular clinical program, said in a release. “After demonstrating successful results during our pilot program, we are confident Story Health complements and enhances the work we do in the clinic to support cardiac conditions in the outpatient setting.”
Of note, the pilot’s investigators estimated that the clinical benefits of the program brought $210,000 in cost savings for the health system. At the same time, virtual medication adjustments freed up an estimated 10 hours per month of clinic appointments per 20 enrolled patients while maintaining hospital readmission rates below the national average.
“Health systems often face challenges achieving optimal treatment plans for cardiology patients because of the reliance on frequent clinic visits,” Stanis said. “The math doesn’t work for the patients or the clinics—clinics only have so many appointment slots available, and frequent visits aren’t possible for many patients, especially those experiencing social barriers or in rural locations.”
Salt Lake City-based Intermountain, which runs 34 hospitals and about 400 clinics, said it plans to continue measuring patient outcomes across the upcoming broader deployment. The nonprofit system also has a separate pilot with Story Health aiming to control blood pressure levels among patients with hypertension, which launched in April.
Cupertino, California-based Story Health launched in late 2020 and has raised about $27 million in funding to date from backers like Northpond Ventures, B Capital Group, LRVHealth, Define Ventures and General Catalyst. The company was among this year’s class of Fierce 15 honorees and said at the time it was focused on expanding its relationships with existing partners like Intermountain while signing on more at-risk providers as new customers.
So far, Story Health has been sticking to the game plan in 2024. Prior to this week’s announcement, the company announced the launch of a virtual afib program with Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute and cut new partnerships with value-based care company Guidehealth as well as Medicare Advantage insurer Zing Health.