Healthcare Reimagined
On Healthcare reimagined, we speak with clinicians, entrepreneurs, and provider and payor executives who are innovating within US Healthcare.
We are sponsored by Covered Health, which is automating the most challenging and time consuming elements of appealing denied medical claims for providers. By streamlining access to diverse databases and inputs, Covered uses technology to helps RCM specialists identify denial root causes, and appeal them
Healthcare Reimagined
Zack Gray - CEO and founder of Ophelia
The third episode of season two of Healthcare Reimagined was recorded on December 3d, 2020. I interviewed Zack Gray, the Co-Founder and CEO of Ophelia, which is addressing the opioid epidemic by making medication-assisted treatment (MAT) private, convenient, and affordable for patients. Zack studied Astrophysics and Philosophy at Columbia, and received his MBA from Wharton.
Zack spoke about how doctors need a special waiver to prescribe the medication that helps cure opioid addiction, which fewer than 5% of them have, making it difficult to get. Most people are buying it on the street, which is how Zack's ex-girlfriend lost her life. Sadly, drug dealers aren't doctors: every 11 minutes another American dies of an opioid overdose, which is now the #1 cause of death for Americans under 50.
We discussed the issues with the present format of rehab, and how Ophelia is helping people quit opioids without going to rehab. Ophelia offers online doctor’s visits, withdrawal medication delivered to patients' homes, and support for long-term recovery, using a protocol 6x more effective than most rehabs. More than 3 million Americans are addicted to opioids, but 80% are not getting help, due to jobs, families, and privacy concerns, among other reasons.
Zack spoke about how Ophelia can work with Hospital to help them reach patients before they present in their ED's. He also spoke about how Ophelia can increase the amount of funding that managed Medicaid's and other payers receive for addicted patients by identifying those patients and classifying them as such, since at present, only 20% are in treatment.