Tech-enabled food delivery company FarmboxRx launched Drivers Health (DH), a comprehensive social needs platform aimed at addressing healthcare members’ continuum of social needs.
DH centers on a tailored, omnichannel experience that allows members to participate with their covered benefits and continue their overall well-being while at the same time passing critical data insights back to their health plan partners.
By addressing social determinants of health (SDOH), FarmboxRx’s platform encourages utilization across critical, non-primarily health-related need areas, such as food, pest control, transportation, mail-order pharmacy, housing and utilities.
DH aims to deliver fair and customized member experiences through tailored home deliveries and tailor-made two-way communication that facilitates data collection to inform health plans and improve health outcomes across historically hard-to-reach populations.
Additionally, DH addresses SDOH and other health-related needs via in-home delivery of essential items and resources, facilitating strategic utilization of SDOH-related benefits, and improving benefit education and health literacy in the member’s preferred language.
DH also enhances member engagement with an initial call to action and requires ongoing program participation that garners insights, facilitating data collection to inform health plans and improve population health outcomes.
“Food as medicine is at the heart of FarmboxRx. It always has been and always will be,” Ashley Tyrner-Dolce, founder and CEO of FarmboxRx, told MobiHealthNews.
“But throughout our journey into healthcare, we became more than just a food company – we became a member engagement company. We unlocked the missing link in helping health plans connect with their members: food. From my own lived experiences, I know that health and well-being go beyond what happens in the doctor’s office.”
Tyrner-Dolce asserted that an individual’s health outcomes are heavily dependent on social factors.
“FarmboxRx pioneered ‘food as engagement,’ using food as a gateway to strengthen the connection between health plan members and their plans,” she said.
Tyrner-Dolce pointed out that by delivering customized content and educational materials inside every FarmboxRx delivery, the company drives engagement and empowers members to take an active role in their healthcare journey.
“As we enter the next phase of our business, FarmboxRx has strengthened our insight collection and analytics capabilities. We have built a robust foundation of member data, and through Drivers Health, we can seamlessly share these insights with health plans – whether government or private insurers – to identify barriers to engagement and strategically connect members to the benefits available to them,” Tyrner-Dolce said.
THE LARGER TREND
In 2024, FarmboxRx launched a Maternal Health Program to provide access to food and nutrition education to at-risk pregnant women during and after pregnancy. The program can be curated for specific populations.
It aims to promote health literacy, focusing on newborn and child immunizations, postpartum mental healthcare, prenatal and postpartum care, vision compliance and nutrition, newborn and delivery preparation, and education on government support programs.
In 2023, FarmboxRx announced the launch of Feed by FarmboxRx, an application-based program to supply individuals affected by cuts to SNAP benefits with produce and pantry staples. The program allows six boxes of produce to be delivered to select individuals each month, along with educational magazines for food preparation recommendations.
At HIMSS, Georgia Health Information Network discussed its Georgia Unity platform, a health information exchange network developed with local community partners that was created due to the need to understand total health in Georgia’s rural communities.
Dr. Denise Hines, executive director at Georgia Health Information Network, and Shirelle King, program manager at Georgia Health Information Network, said the goal of the project was to use social determinants of health to close gaps in health equity and build structures for better health outcomes.
In 2022, healthcare data analytics startup Socially Determined closed a $26 million Series B funding round led by Questa Capital. Other participants in the raise included existing investors LRVHealth, OSF Healthcare, Ziegler Link-Age Funds and HealthWorx. The startup wrapped up its $11.1 million Series A in early 2020.
Socially Determined is focused on using data to offer insights into the social determinants of health factors like access to food, housing and transportation.
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