Univita is a new play from a strong executive team led by former Anthem CEO Ben Lytle. Post Anthem, Lytle and his son Hugh founded Axia, a wellness company, and sold it to DM industry giant (albeit a small giant among dwarves), Healthways.
Now they’ve bought Enurgi which has established a platform for caregivers to manage in-home care over the web. (FD, Enurgi was founded by my friend Chiara Bell). Scraped straight from Univita’s website, here’s what they say they’re going to do:
- Univita provides one-call, one-source support for independent living. We are creating a virtual marketplace where those in need and their families can easily locate, assess, hire and pay for products and services from local providers.
- Univita will transform the home by servicing the full range of in-home care needs.
We provide non-clinical programs such as caregiving for activities of
daily living, as well as home health care, infusion therapy, home
medical equipment, frail elderly support and hospice services. - Univita offers personalized assessments and innovative financial support tools to help seniors understand the financial impact of long-term care and determine how to remain independent while maximizing their own financial resources.
- Univita works with patients, families, caregivers and physicians to create a communication-based "care circle."
This all-encompassing support provides an individual’s care plan,
health records, daily health status, face-to-face observational
reports, weekly schedules, and discussion among members of the circle.
Previously Univita bought a long term care insurer (the imaginatively titled Long Term Care Group), and now with Enurgi they have the platform for the first two bullets.
Now of course despite being well financed and putting the initial pieces in place, there’s a long way to go for this start-up.
But it’s an indication that even in the depths of the
recession we appear to be spiraling into, smart business people are
seeing that the care of the baby boomers’ parents is going to need
different tools and a different approach than is available in the
market today. Watch this space.
Puts one in mind of the Life Care at Home concept. It would make case managers out of caregivers. I wonder if even the aging baby boomers will have the tech and gerontological saavy to manage care on their own.
Sounds like a great solution. Our society is living longer and longer, and along with that come the challenges of aging. A resource to assist families and patients with health care choices and decisions is a wonderful idea.