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December 8, 2021With STIs on the rise, Wellfleet takes leadership role in offering its college partners convenient, accurate, and discreet at-home solutions for sexual health
binx health, through an expanded agreement with student health insurer Wellfleet, will provide college students nationwide access to sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing. The agreement will enable students from all colleges and universities offering student health insurance from Wellfleet, a Berkshire Hathaway company and one of the nation’s largest student health insurance carriers, access to testing through the binx everywhere at-home and in-dorm digital platform from binx health, a healthcare technology and diagnostics company that brings convenient care to the locations where people live, work, study, and shop.
Enhancing access to STI testing is vital for the college population as college and university students are among the highest-risk populations for acquiring STIs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 50% of the 26 million new STIs diagnosed in 2018 were among young people between the ages of 15–24 years.1
“The healthcare needs of the student population are unique and evolving,” said Drew DiGiorgio, President and CEO of Wellfleet. “We’re hyper-focused on delivering a positive experience for our members through clinical programs designed to improve access to care. Our agreement with binx in COVID-19 testing, and now in STI testing, is emblematic of this mission and we look forward to working together to continue to reach populations with high quality care in the places most convenient for them.”
Despite the availability of highly accurate tests, the uptake of routine STI screening for young people is low—estimated in one study to be under 12%2—and has been attributed to numerous factors including the stigma associated with attending STI clinics, embarrassment, and the inconvenience of attending a brick-and-mortar testing location.3
“Delivering on the promise of better healthcare means linking arms with those of similar commitment who are driven to address old problems in new ways,” said Jeffrey Luber, binx CEO. “We applaud Wellfleet’s commitment to its members by putting students, high quality care, and convenience at the center of a new care paradigm in sexual health.”
While infection rates continue to rise, in-person patient care remains severely impacted due to the COVID pandemic4. The emergence of at-home and in-dorm access like binx everywhere, offers the potential to address many key barriers, while still providing quality, comprehensive care.
In 2020, binx and Wellfleet announced an agreement to offer college clients access to convenient at-home and in-dorm sample collection for COVID-19 testing using binx’s enterprise solutions for population health screening.
About binx health
Binx health is a healthcare technology and diagnostics company that makes routine testing convenient by enabling access to care where people live, work, study, and shop. The Company works with large corporate partners and institutions who have access to large patient populations and have a significant interest in delivering or facilitating better healthcare to provide access to and enable more streamlined delivery of diagnostic testing and care. Its omnichannel platform includes the point-of-care io platform which puts central-lab quality testing solutions in the hands of clinicians everywhere and the Company's suite of physician-mediated and medically guideline-driven, at-home sample collection offerings which bring high quality testing, population health tools and seamless digital integration capability to those unable or unwilling to visit a clinic location.
binx's FDA-cleared, CLIA-waived io platform is the first ever point-of-care tool for the detection of chlamydia and gonorrhea that provides central lab performance results in about thirty minutes. Its platform is highly flexible, easy-to-use, and rapid, offering molecular point-of-care answers at central-lab quality performance and for the first time enabling single-visit test and treatment. For more information, visit www.mybinxhealth.com.
About Wellfleet
Wellfleet is a Berkshire Hathaway company focused on delivering customer-centric insurance solutions through flexible product offerings and quality service. With an A++ (Superior) financial strength rating from A.M. Best*, Wellfleet’s goal is to protect people against risk throughout every stage of life — from grade school to college, the workplace, and beyond.
Headquartered in Springfield, Mass., Wellfleet was founded in 1993 and is one of the leading providers of health and accident insurance products to the higher education market. Additionally, Wellfleet’s Workplace division delivers high-quality, customizable benefit solutions through a suite of voluntary products, including Accident, Critical Illness and Short-Term Disability Income insurance. For more information, visit www.wellfleetinsurance.com
Wellfleet is the marketing name used to refer to the insurance and administrative operations of Wellfleet Insurance Company, Wellfleet New York Insurance Company, and Wellfleet Group, LLC. All insurance products are administered or managed by Wellfleet Group, LLC. Product availability is based upon business and/or regulatory approval and may differ among companies.
1 Sexually Transmitted Infections Prevalence, Incidence, and Cost Estimates in the United States, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Published January 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/std/life-stages-populations/adolescents-youngadults.htm 2 Sexually Transmitted Infection Testing Among Adolescents and Young Adults in the United States (2016). https://www.jahonline.org/action/showPdf?pii=S1054-139X%2816%2900019-7 3 https://journals.lww.com/stdjournal/Abstract/9000/ATTITUDES_AND_PREFERENCES_REGARDING_NON_CLINIC.97619.aspx 4 Trends in STD case reports during the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic, January-December 2020 https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/2021/2020-std-trend-report.html