ProMedica and AAA Club Alliance on Wednesday announced plans for a new healthcare joint venture targeting aging Americans.
AAA HealthCONNECT powered by ProMedica will officially launch in early 2022 in Ohio and will be available to those 55 and older who sign up for a membership. The goal is for the offering to be a "one-stop shop" that will help people "navigate the aging process," said Tom Wiedemann, president and CEO of AAA Club Alliance.
"We believe there is significant need in this space," Wiedemann told Modern Healthcare. "This is about helping assist in what really is a major life transition."
Often, he said, it can be confusing for individuals to know how to access all of the different services available to them as they age because the system is very disjointed. The new offering, while still being developed, eventually will help members coordinate things like transportation, fitness, wellness and healthcare, he said. The plan is to add on more services based on consumer demand.
"The consumer market has been really saturated with solutions for millennials and Gen Xers. People over 60, I think, are underrepresented in the consumer market," said Randy Oostra, president and CEO of Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica.
The two companies hope to cash in on the growing segment of aging Americans and to focus on social determinants of health, they said. While there will be competition as more players enter the value-based senior care space, Oostra said the holistic nature of the new platform, as well as AAA Club Alliance's membership pool and experience with consumer-facing services, should separate it from other options.
Similarly, in September, AARP announced that Oak Street Health, a Chicago-based primary care network for adults on Medicare, would be its provider of choice starting Jan. 1, 2022.
ProMedica reported a net loss of nearly $48.3 million during the third quarter, down from $7.8 million a year ago, according to financial filings. The system's Senior Care division saw an operating loss of $53.4 million in the third quarter, compared to an $11.9 million loss the previous year.
AAA HealthCONNECT powered by ProMedica, will have administrative offices in Toledo, Ohio, a call center in Cincinnati, Ohio, a website and a marketplace for consumers to access services. The 50-50 joint venture was nearly two years in the making and will be headed by CEO Kathleen Krueger, a former ProMedica executive, and COO Josh Peyton, a former automotive executive with AAA Club Alliance, the companies said in a news release.
