UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Pennsylvania has launched two text message-based wellness programs to promote healthy behavior among beneficiaries of its Medicaid benefits plans.
Both programs send personalized reminders to users' mobile phones to help them better manage their health. Txt4health reminds adults to take their medication and keep scheduled physicians' appointments, and also sends diet and exercise tips, among other features. The pediatric version, Text4kids, sends parents reminders about their child's upcoming physician visits, provides information about vaccinations and other resources.
These programs may be particularly successful among Medicaid populations, as a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study revealed 79 percent of Medicaid beneficiaries use text messaging, compared with 43 percent of Medicare beneficiaries and 68 percent of people insured through an employer-sponsored healthcare plan, according to the news release.
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