Virtual healthcare continues to evolve, and Alanté has entered that space as an integrated healthcare solution that aims to create both better quality of life for the patient and peace of mind for the family. Providing coordinated and integrated care services for a patient and the patient’s family under the direction of the patient’s physician, the Scottsdale-based company is built around the premise that state-of-the-art healthcare can be done virtually.
The goal for founder and CEO Mark Hansen — son of a small-town doctor who focused a large portion of his practice on geriatric care — was to elevate care for seniors by taking away the pain, fear and uncertainty patients and their families experience when they enter our complex healthcare system. “We want people to spend their time getting better and achieving a better quality of life versus trying to manage an overwhelming fractured healthcare system,” Hansen says.
Driven by the Affordable Care Act, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) now requires healthcare providers to provide healthcare information in a standardized electronic format, and also requires patients to have access to their health information electronically. In addition, CMS developed new care management physician billing codes such as chronic care management and remote patient monitoring, which help the patient cover the cost of these vital services. These services drive down the overall cost of care by, among other things, helping patients adhere to their physician care plan — which helps unnecessary hospitalizations — and eliminating duplication of medical services.
But that leaves a myriad of questions that can overwhelm patients and their families, among them being “What should I expect next, and when?”; “Who can I trust to give me accurate information?”; What services are available and how do I access them?”; and “How will I pay for it?”
“The best advice I received was from my father,” Hansen says. “He drove home to me that what is most important for seniors’ overall health and well-being is to keep them at home and in their community when providing healthcare solutions. Maintaining seniors’ independence is always the most important thing to their health and well-being. Never take away a senior’s existing support and social structure; instead, always try to enhance it.”
Hansen founded the company in 2020 and launched it this year. His biggest challenges, he says, have been the ability to integrate with various electronic healthcare platforms, which vary from provider to provider, and identifying how patients could pay for these services whereby it would be affordable and ultimately result in a reduction in the overall cost of their healthcare services.
