Midi Health broadens mid-life women’s health into longevity–covered by some insurance. Midi Health, which targets women in their middle years (a limiting definition, as this Editor will explain), is pursuing a broader spectrum of services. Their “longevity care” service, dubbed AgeWell, is promoting their ‘whole person’ care. The first step is blood testing and then a virtual visit to review a  personalized care plan involving supplement and medication recommendations, such as hormone therapy. This is an interesting development as it 1) mass markets longevity ‘lite’ and 2) repositions it to be at least partly paid by insurance. Midi is clearly shifting to be more than menopause and about more of the total women’s longevity picture. Axios

Unfortunately, the drawbacks are many to many most interested. There’s no genetic testing. And while some commercial insurers like UnitedHealth, Cigna, HealthNet, and some Blue plans participate, the big omission is Medicare and Medicare-related plans, such as Medicare supplements and Medicare Advantage. The third is marketing that excludes older women. This Editor hates to be Debbie Downer as Midi is trying hard to provide more care plus a continuity of care to women traditionally ignored who are most interested in health and longevity–and believe me, she is, for decades. But it’s very clear that Midi is not interested in women with a few more cycles on the old airframe who are basically healthy, consider themselves still in mid-life, and want to remain so.  All the pictures and testimonials are from women who are 35 (perimenopause) and early menopause (maybe up to 55). Ouch. One can, of course, cash pay for services but it’s very clear that older healthy women in the 60+ age group who are seeking and need services like their offerings aren’t where Midi is at. And that is disappointing.

GPs in New Zealand are warning that the government’s 24/7 telehealth scheme is not all it’s cracked up to be. This Editor hasn’t heard much from NZ (or in Maori, Aotearoa, which seems to be widely used there) of late but this is perhaps an instance of good intentions gone sideways. The chair of NZ’s association of general practitioners, Dr. Buzz Burrell, is cited in Nine to Noon (NZ) 28 May that “to his knowledge, no GP organizations had been consulted over the design of the new telehealth platform, which was concerning.” Dr. Burrell points out that the country has an acute shortage of GPs, estimated at 500-1,000, and further fragment the continuity of GP practice into ‘hit and run’ medicine. An interesting point he made, FTA, was that “research had shown that patients who had the same GP for five years, lived four years longer on average, and had 30 percent fewer referrals to secondary services.” This is a terrific argument for family/primary care.

Background: The NZ Digital Health Association chair is promoting it as it would making it easier for patients to access a doctor and help to avoid “clogging up the hospital system”. NZ is funding a scheme for after hours urgent care but GPs have already said that the NZ$164 million (US$ 98.1 million) funding over the next four years is nowhere near enough–and with the local shortages, who will be staffing the centres? Nine to Noon 19 May  Hat tip to Editor Emeritus Steve, from Roy Lilley’s NHS newsletter today (but I didn’t see it!)

Auxira Health moves out of stealth for ‘white label’ tele-cardiology services. The telehealth startup is centered on cardiology followup as what they term a ‘practice extension’ (clever!) supplementing practices with remote advanced practice providers (APPs) to serve patients in low-acuity visits and handle administrative tasks like inbox messages for physicians. Where it’s different is to match the APPs and services to meet the needs of specific cardiology practices. It was designed out of MedStar Health, funded by the American Heart Association’s Studio Red venture arm, plus Abundant Health Ventures and the investor’s consortium of 17 health systems about a year ago. CEO Inna Plumb was a founding partner at Redesign Health and CEO and co-founder of MedArrive. FierceHealthcare