Bamboo Health™, formerly Appriss Health and PatientPing, a healthcare technology solutions company focused on fostering care collaboration and providing information and actionable insights across the entire continuum of care, announced an expanded partnership with Bicycle Health, the leading virtual care provider of evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). Bicycle Health will leverage the company’s Pings™ and Spotlights™ solutions for real-time insights into emergency department (ED) and acute inpatient care utilization for improved outcomes, as well as to understand the impact of the company’s programs across its population.

Bicycle Health was founded to make effective OUD treatment more accessible. Most modern recovery experiences are simply not designed for the vast majority of patient experiences. Many require extensive time spent, prohibiting those with less flexible jobs or caregiving roles from taking time away. Additionally, many Americans simply don’t have access to Medication-Assisted-Treatment (MAT) – a highly effective opioid recovery treatment that reduces withdrawal, cravings, and overdose risk. In fact, 40% percent of rural Americans currently live in a county without a single waivered provider that can prescribe Buprenorphine for opioid addiction treatment. As a result, many patients can’t and don’t receive the treatment they need. In 2019, just 1.5% of people struggling with substance use disorder reported receiving any treatment at all.

To help more Americans get the treatment they need, Bicycle Health has sought to reach as many people with OUD as possible, providing affordable, high-quality telehealth care to make recovery simple, convenient, and effective – safely from home. The company’s evidence-based care model includes synchronous and asynchronous telehealth visits, same day prescription refills for medication management, access to peer support groups and psychotherapy, and regular in-home diagnostics testing to monitor a patient’s progress. The company has seen tremendous progress – in 2021, the company prevented an estimated 355 overdoses and helped nearly 15,000 patients overcome problematic opioid use. Bicycle Health’s retention rates are also appreciably higher than the industry average.

The expanded partnership builds upon Bicycle Health’s existing use of Bamboo Health’s prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) solutions to keep track of patients’ progress. Using the Pings solution, Bicycle Health will receive real-time notifications whenever its patients experience care events, whether they are at a hospital, ED, or post-acute facility. This allows case managers and therapists to better track patients’ care journeys, reach out to re-engage patients that have had care events, and increase their level of care or alter their care plan as needed. Additionally, the Spotlights solution provides Bicycle Health with an interactive, real-time dashboard of high-priority performance metrics — such as admission, discharge, and transfer (ADT) data and patient outcome data — allowing the company to analyze utilization measures. For example, Bicycle Health can compare the number of ED visits and hospitalizations prior to treatment against those once stable on Buprenorphine. This level of data provides a better understanding of the success of treatment, as well as associated cost savings.

“Over the past two years, our mission of increasing access to effective OUD treatment has become even more urgent. The pandemic’s toll on mental health and addiction has been profound – and in its wake – thousands of people are left in need of treatment options,” said Ankit Gupta, CEO and Founder of Bicycle Health. “Our partnership with Bamboo Health comes at a critical time – the insights that the Pings and Spotlights solutions provide are invaluable as we work to build value-based care partnerships with health plans and more importantly, improve treatment and outcomes for those recovering from opioid use disorder.”

“Bamboo Heath is committed to delivering solutions that support real-time care coordination and promote interoperability in order to improve outcomes for patients and help combat the mental health and substance use crisis that has cut too many lives short,” said Rob Cohen, CEO of Bamboo Health. “We are excited to extend our partnership with Bicycle Health in support of their efforts to provide life-changing treatment for those with opioid use disorder.”