Bicycle Health, a telehealth opioid use disorder treatment startup specializing in medication-assisted therapy (MAT), is strengthening its partnership with Bamboo Health, a leading healthcare data coordination platform. This collaboration aims to enhance Bicycle Health’s ability to track and improve patient outcomes by leveraging Bamboo Health’s advanced data tools — Pings and Spotlights — alongside its existing use of Bamboo’s prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) platform.
Ankit Gupta, CEO and founder of Bicycle Health, emphasized the critical timing and value of this partnership. “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,” he said. This data-driven approach aligns closely with Bicycle Health’s mission to expand access to effective, patient-centered telehealth opioid use disorder treatment.
Bamboo Health’s Robust Data Network Fuels Enhanced Care Coordination
Bamboo Health, headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, is at the forefront of healthcare data interoperability. Its extensive network connects 52 of the 54 state- and territory-based PDMPs to nearly one million clinicians, more than 25,000 pharmacies, and thousands of hospitals nationwide. Beyond prescription monitoring, Bamboo Health offers comprehensive patient care coordination services that have touched the care journeys of over 43 million patients. This expansive data ecosystem empowers healthcare providers to receive timely, actionable information about their patients’ interactions across diverse care settings.
The integration of Bamboo Health’s Pings and Spotlights solutions into Bicycle Health’s platform represents a significant enhancement in care coordination capabilities for behavioral health providers specializing in addiction treatment.
- Pings provides real-time notifications whenever a patient experiences a care event such as an emergency department visit, hospital admission, discharge, or transfer. This immediate awareness enables clinicians to intervene promptly and tailor ongoing treatment plans according to the patient’s evolving health status.
- Spotlights delivers interactive, real-time dashboards that track high-priority performance metrics, including admission, discharge, and transfer (ADT) data, as well as patient outcomes. This analytics capability enables Bicycle Health to measure the effectiveness of its interventions, understand patient utilization patterns across the healthcare system, and continuously refine treatment strategies.
These tools address a longstanding challenge in the behavioral health and addiction treatment fields: the difficulty in capturing comprehensive, real-time data on patients’ experiences outside of the provider’s direct care environment. Such insight is critical as the industry increasingly embraces value-based care models, which emphasize outcomes and coordinated care across settings.
Meeting the Urgent Need for Expanded Telehealth Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Access
The urgency of expanding access to effective OUD treatment has only intensified over the past few years. The COVID-19 pandemic exacted a profound toll on mental health and substance use disorders, exacerbating existing crises and leaving thousands more in need of care. Gupta noted, “Over the past two years, our mission of increasing access to effective OUD treatment has become even more urgent.”
Bicycle Health’s comprehensive MAT services are designed to meet these needs through a patient-centric, telehealth-driven model. Their offerings include telehealth visits with medical providers, prescription medication delivery and management, in-home diagnostic testing, peer support groups, and psychotherapy. By eliminating many of the traditional barriers to treatment — such as transportation, stigma, and limited local provider availability — Bicycle Health makes it easier for patients to start and sustain recovery through telehealth opioid use disorder treatment.
In 2021, Bicycle Health estimates that its MAT program and supporting services helped prevent 355 opioid overdoses and supported around 15,000 patients in overcoming problematic opioid use. These outcomes underscore the life-saving potential of accessible, integrated MAT programs supported by timely, coordinated data.
Addressing Access Gaps in Telehealth Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Across the U.S.
Despite the well-documented efficacy of MAT as a gold standard in opioid addiction treatment, access remains a critical barrier for many Americans. According to a 2020 report from the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, roughly two-thirds of the U.S. population live in areas with limited or no access to providers who offer MAT. This gap is compounded by regulatory limits that restrict the number of patients individual providers can treat, even as the overall number of qualified MAT providers has reached record highs.
By expanding its use of Bamboo Health’s data solutions, Bicycle Health is better equipped to navigate these challenges. Enhanced visibility into patients’ care across settings can facilitate smoother transitions, reduce gaps in treatment, and support more proactive, personalized interventions — all of which contribute to improved patient retention and outcomes in a notoriously difficult treatment area.
Bamboo Health’s Commitment to Combating the Mental Health and Substance Use Crisis
Rob Cohen, CEO of Bamboo Health, reiterated his company’s dedication to leveraging technology and data interoperability to address the growing behavioral health crisis. “Bamboo Health 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,” Cohen said.
The partnership between Bicycle Health and Bamboo Health exemplifies the type of innovative, data-driven collaboration needed to modernize addiction treatment and mental health care. As telehealth opioid use disorder treatment continues to expand and value-based care becomes the norm, tools like Pings and Spotlights will be essential in closing care gaps and supporting sustainable recovery journeys for patients.
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