Dr. Anil Singh shares his insights into the strategies employed by the organization to identify the most effective digital solutions for their members.

Highmark Health has been launching a series of initiatives to support the “food as medicine” movement, including a program that provides some West Virginia residents with debit cards to purchase healthy food at Dollar General stores.

It shouldn’t be so hard for Americans to access healthy foods, said Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, founder of healthy food company Step One Foods, during a Tuesday panel at the MedCity INVEST conference in Chicago. There should be incentives for food companies and better nutrition education for Americans.

A similar bill appeared last year but did not progress. Given the potential costs of reimbursing prescription digital therapeutics, Congress could be skeptical. Still, with growing attention on mental health, advocates are optimistic.

The six-month pilot program aims to support 1,000 Highmark insurance members with certain chronic health conditions and who are at high-risk of food insecurity. These members will receive two medically-tailored meals a day, as well as coaching and social work to help them live a healthier lifestyle.

The new platform is a “digital front door” for members, offered on the web and through the My Highmark app. It will help members with scheduling appointments, accessing primary care and urgent care, managing prescription drugs and other services. It will roll out in January.

Cedar recently launched a new set of features to bring the disconnected ecosystem of healthcare entities together and make billing easier to understand for patients. Pittsburgh-based payer Highmark Health and its health system, Allegheny Health Network, are the first customers to implement the product, which Cedar dubbed its “payer intelligence layer.”

Verily become part of a six-year collaboration between Google Cloud and Highmark Health. A big part of the partnership will be Verily’s platform for managing chronic conditions, Onduo.

The insurer, which also owns Allegheny Health Network, struck a six-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud, which includes building out a new platform to help better manage patient care.

This Pitch Perfect contest track reflected technology to remove financial barriers for their patients, automating workflows, reducing inefficiency and waste associated with the Prior Authorization process, and more.

Time is running out to register for INVEST Digital Health virtual conference, scheduled for September 21-25. In addition to compelling panel discussions, it will spotlight startups who will present their products and services to teams of judges in four categories.

Executives with Kaiser Permanente, Houston Methodist, Providence St. Joseph Health and Highmark Health shared their thoughts on the future of digital health and how they used technology to care for their patients at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Highmark Health is reimbursing Moving Analytics’ virtual cardiac rehab tool through an innovation program and is expected to roll it out more broadly should the tool lower readmissions and lower costs.

Highmark Health is turning its internal VITAL Innovation program into a commercial offering meant to help startups test their products in real-world clinical environments.