Gateway Health offers app aiding recovering substance abuse patients

By | May 18, 2019

Health insurer Gateway Health has teamed with mobile app vendor WEconnect Health Management to give Pennsylvania plan members ongoing help with recovery from substance abuse.

Gateway is offering an app after inpatient treatment so those patients can join a support network during the first year of recovery.

Each year, 23 million Americans seek substance abuse treatment, and more than 80 percent relapse after treatment. The WEconnect app is designed to reduce relapse rates by showing tracking metrics to bridge the gap from treatment to recovery; it takes a 28-day program and turns it into a year-long program.

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The app connects patients to the support network once they leave treatment, tracks treatment plan routines and identifies risks of relapse before it happens so a patient’s support network can intervene. It also sets up check-ins with counselors who are offering activities that support continued recovery.

The program includes sending messages of congratulations to patients for sticking with the treatment plan and offering vouchers such as Starbucks cards, which can be validation to a patient that they remain on the right path to recovery.

Daniela Luzi Tudor

Daniela Luzi Tudor

Technology entrepreneur Daniela Tudor and Murphy Jensen, a former French Open champion, co-founded WEconnect to provide a resource they thought was missing from their own recoveries—a technology solution that is empathetic and data-driven.

“The WEconnect app provides a 24/7 recovery coach in the pockets of every patient leaving treatment,” Tudor says. “It leverages data for improved outcomes and has helped thousands of patients stay in recovery. Our mission is to save lives, and we believe this partnership with Gateway Health will do just that.”

“Relapse rates are highest during the first year of recovery,” says Will Wenger, director of product strategy and behavioral health at Gateway Health. “In creating this program, we are putting proven techniques to use so we can keep more residents in recovery and build a healthier future for our members and the state of Pennsylvania.”

Joseph Goedert

Joseph Goedert

Goedert is senior editor of Health Data Management, a SourceMedia publication.

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