Becker's Hospital Review

41 CIO / HEALTH IT Amazon's Alexa is now HIPAA compliant By Jackie Drees A mazon unveiled soware for its voice assistant Alexa that allows healthcare organizations to transmit and re- ceive patients' protected health information, according to an April 4 company blog post. e new healthcare skills allow customers to use Alexa-enabled devices for tasks such as scheduling medical appointments, checking on the status of prescriptions and accessing hospital post-discharge instructions. Alexa's skills are HIPAA-compliant and can be accessed by healthcare providers, payers, pharmacy benefit managers and digital health companies as part of an invite-only program. Amazon has partnered with the following six healthcare organizations: Livongo, Renton, Wash.-based Providence St. Joseph Health, Boston Children's Hospital, Atrium Health in Charlotte, N.C., Express Scripts and Cigna. "Voice is going to be a big part of the future in all areas of our lives, including health and healthcare," Providence St. Joseph Health Chief Digital Officer Aaron Martin said in a news release emailed to Becker's Hospital Review. "We're excited to be one of the first health systems in the U.S. to build Alexa skills that help our patients connect to our provid- ers and get faster access to care." To use the new Alexa skills at Providence St. Joseph, patients can simply ask Alexa to open Providence's health app, and Alexa will sug- gest appointment times within the next day at a clinic closest to the patient's home. Indi- viduals can also cancel appointments through the new Alexa skill. At Livongo, a digital health startup aimed at supporting people with chronic conditions, customers using Alexa can ask the voice as- sistant to read their latest blood sugar reading and blood sugar measurement trends as well as provide health insights personally individ- ualized for the user. n Walgreens to invest $300M in digital health By Mackenzie Garrity A fter reporting a dip in net earnings for the first quar- ter of 2019, Walgreens plans to invest $300 million in digital health to make up for the losses, according to Digital Commerce 360. The drugstore's net earnings dropped to $1.156 billion from $1.349 billion in the same quarter of 2018. Walgreens CEO Stefano Pessina told analysts that to make up for its worst quarterly results since 2014, it plans to cut annual ex- penses by $1.5 billion to make room for digital health. "We will be putting $300 million to boost the partnerships and boost our capabilities on digitalization of the compa- ny," Walgreens CFO James Keho told analysts. Walgreens teamed up with Microsoft in January to design "digital health corners" for its stores. "The partnership with Microsoft is a clear acceleration of the digitalization of our company, along with recruiting in- ternally a lot of [people] particularly a chief digital officer," Walgreens COO Alex Goulary said. In the next several years, Walgreens will invest over $1 bil- lion to grow its retail business anchored in digital health. "We have the right investments, $300 million a year, which –– it adds up to $1 billion of investments behind partner- ships and digital," Mr. Kehoe said. "We're investing to make sure especially that the U.S. business has the ammunition required to create that omnichannel experience in both pharmacy and in retail." Walgreens is not the only drugstore to make a push into digital health. In February, CVS said it would spend $325 million to $350 million on digital health. n Doctor On Demand and Humana launch health plan By Mackenzie Garrity A fter their recent partnership, telemedicine provid- er Doctor On Demand and Humana are launch- ing a new health plan called On Hand, which is focused on comprehensive virtual primary care. "We resolve roughly 92 percent of cases [virtually]," Doctor On Demand CEO Hill Ferguson told Jim Cram- er on CNBC's Mad Money. "For that remaining 8 percent with this new plan design, we will be leveraging Huma- na's network [of] specialists and other facilities." Through On Hand, patients will have access to physicians without making physical trips to clinics at significantly low- er monthly premiums. For employers and members who select On Hand as their primary care plan, they will receive access to a plethora of in-network virtual care services. Like traditional healthcare models, patients will have one dedicated primary care physician as well as access to preventive care, urgent care and behavioral health, all through video. Patients will be able to see their digital health records and control what information gets shared. Virtually, physi- cians can make referrals for inpatient visits, which will stay within Humana's network. The new health plan aims to offer lower-premium costs that are significantly less than the average standard plan. Doctor On Demand has a $0 copay for physician visits and a $5 copay for common lab tests and prescriptions. n

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