Blog
First Belgian digital health application conditionally reimbursed by the health insurance
May 24, 2022
Brussels April 19, 2022: the moveUP app for use in orthopedics has already been financed for more than 1 year by means of a convention, and this is now being formalized with the level 3 status in the mHealth validation pyramid.
moveUP is a Belgian scale-up company with offices in Brussels and Ghent, founded in 2015. In 2016, moveUP was accepted as 1 of the 24 apps for the Mobile Health Call AP19 initiated by the federal government, with the aim to create a legal, regulatory, and financial framework for digital health applications.
In 2017 moveUP ran a clinical study in 3 Belgian hospitals, of which the results were used in 2018 to file for reimbursement and to receive the CE certificate for medical device. Meanwhile patients started using moveUP, paying these services out of pocket. DKV started to partly or fully contribute through their hospitalization insurance.
Mid 2020 moveUP was granted reimbursement for its solution for patients recovering after orthopedic surgery. onboarded in 12 leading hospitals, participating in a large, randomized control trial, which was scheduled to take 9 months to conclude, after which the reimbursement could be used by all hospitals and physiotherapists respecting the convention. Because of the strict process & protocol (and Covid) however only ⅓ of the patients are included over a period of 1,5 years.
Ward Servaes, CEO: "Changes in healthcare systems always take time, so we are happy to see that BeMedTech, FAGG, Agoria, RIZIV/INAMI, eHealth-platform, mutualities and other medical app developers have strongly and constructively collaborated to progress on the pyramid validation tool, and that we were granted a position at the 3rd level of the pyramid. For a start-up & scale-up company however, waiting 6 years is a very long period. And we’re not there yet. The reimbursement is currently accompanied with a clinical study. How fortunate we felt in the beginning about this combination, how difficult it turned out to be in real life. Given the massive paperwork and complex setup of the study, we now have less orthopedic patients in the system than before the study started. We really need the reimbursement to be opened up to all hospitals as soon as possible so patients have the option to choose for personalized remote care by their specialized physiotherapist. When looking at the dynamics in uptake of digital health applications like for example the United States, we need to be vigilant that our Belgian and European digital health ecosystem doesn't miss opportunities due to procedural complexities.
Happily we were in the meanwhile able to successfully bring our solution to the market in new therapeutical areas, like bariatrics, and set up partnerships with health insurers and life science companies in the neighboring countries and the United States”.
About moveUP
moveUP is a Belgium founded digital care company, receiving support from international health insurers to facilitate its activities in US, France, Germany, and The Netherlands.
The team facilitates and provides personalized remote care in the orthopedic, bariatric/obesity, cardiac, oncology, neurology and respiratory spaces. Patient’s progress is being monitored using an application and a smart wearable. Working on intelligent dashboards, moveUP’s multidisciplinary care team collaborates with the hospital teams to provide continuity of care through the whole patient journey, including prehabilitation, enhanced recovery, rehabilitation, and changing lifestyles. moveUP applies value-based healthcare by measuring, predicting, and improving the quality of care with evidence-based protocols, while making patient pathways more transparent and cost effective.
moveUP Labs, a separate business unit, collaborates with multiple international pharma & medical technology companies to develop specific medical applications and dashboards to follow-up and guide patients in specific patient pathways.
In 2021, a year where surgical procedures were significantly reduced, moveUP was able to show strong growth with revenues more than doubling compared to 2020.
To support its growth, moveUP is funded by Karista (France), White Fund (Belgium), Nina Capital (Spain), Qbic and CarEvolution (Belgium) and EIC (European Commission).
moveUP also is a beneficiary of R&D grants from the European Union (H2020 program), Flanders (Vlaio) and Brussels (Innoviris).
Brussels April 19, 2022: the moveUP app for use in orthopedics has already been financed for more than 1 year by means of a convention, and this is now being formalized with the level 3 status in the mHealth validation pyramid.
moveUP is a Belgian scale-up company with offices in Brussels and Ghent, founded in 2015. In 2016, moveUP was accepted as 1 of the 24 apps for the Mobile Health Call AP19 initiated by the federal government, with the aim to create a legal, regulatory, and financial framework for digital health applications.
In 2017 moveUP ran a clinical study in 3 Belgian hospitals, of which the results were used in 2018 to file for reimbursement and to receive the CE certificate for medical device. Meanwhile patients started using moveUP, paying these services out of pocket. DKV started to partly or fully contribute through their hospitalization insurance.
Mid 2020 moveUP was granted reimbursement for its solution for patients recovering after orthopedic surgery. onboarded in 12 leading hospitals, participating in a large, randomized control trial, which was scheduled to take 9 months to conclude, after which the reimbursement could be used by all hospitals and physiotherapists respecting the convention. Because of the strict process & protocol (and Covid) however only ⅓ of the patients are included over a period of 1,5 years.
Ward Servaes, CEO: "Changes in healthcare systems always take time, so we are happy to see that BeMedTech, FAGG, Agoria, RIZIV/INAMI, eHealth-platform, mutualities and other medical app developers have strongly and constructively collaborated to progress on the pyramid validation tool, and that we were granted a position at the 3rd level of the pyramid. For a start-up & scale-up company however, waiting 6 years is a very long period. And we’re not there yet. The reimbursement is currently accompanied with a clinical study. How fortunate we felt in the beginning about this combination, how difficult it turned out to be in real life. Given the massive paperwork and complex setup of the study, we now have less orthopedic patients in the system than before the study started. We really need the reimbursement to be opened up to all hospitals as soon as possible so patients have the option to choose for personalized remote care by their specialized physiotherapist. When looking at the dynamics in uptake of digital health applications like for example the United States, we need to be vigilant that our Belgian and European digital health ecosystem doesn't miss opportunities due to procedural complexities.
Happily we were in the meanwhile able to successfully bring our solution to the market in new therapeutical areas, like bariatrics, and set up partnerships with health insurers and life science companies in the neighboring countries and the United States”.
About moveUP
moveUP is a Belgium founded digital care company, receiving support from international health insurers to facilitate its activities in US, France, Germany, and The Netherlands.
The team facilitates and provides personalized remote care in the orthopedic, bariatric/obesity, cardiac, oncology, neurology and respiratory spaces. Patient’s progress is being monitored using an application and a smart wearable. Working on intelligent dashboards, moveUP’s multidisciplinary care team collaborates with the hospital teams to provide continuity of care through the whole patient journey, including prehabilitation, enhanced recovery, rehabilitation, and changing lifestyles. moveUP applies value-based healthcare by measuring, predicting, and improving the quality of care with evidence-based protocols, while making patient pathways more transparent and cost effective.
moveUP Labs, a separate business unit, collaborates with multiple international pharma & medical technology companies to develop specific medical applications and dashboards to follow-up and guide patients in specific patient pathways.
In 2021, a year where surgical procedures were significantly reduced, moveUP was able to show strong growth with revenues more than doubling compared to 2020.
To support its growth, moveUP is funded by Karista (France), White Fund (Belgium), Nina Capital (Spain), Qbic and CarEvolution (Belgium) and EIC (European Commission).
moveUP also is a beneficiary of R&D grants from the European Union (H2020 program), Flanders (Vlaio) and Brussels (Innoviris).
