The Collaborative Forum

Very recently, I wrote about remote patient monitoring (RPM) systems and how they are gaining traction with healthcare payers, such as insurance companies.  Historically, health plans have under-invested in optimizing the management of medical expenses, choosing instead to maximize rates where possible. As a result, they’ve experienced high medical losses and have triggered financial pressure and constraints on revenue growth.

Health plans can and are beginning to consistently and sustainably improve outcomes and reduce medical losses by monitoring the daily status of at-risk members through RPM. We’ve just released the results of an evaluation of a large national Medicare Advantage plan that partnered with Pharos Innovations to improve the hospitalization costs in their population. The results speak directly to why RPM systems like  Tel-Assurance can play a key role in our healthcare system going forward.

Nationally, 10% to 14% of Medicare Advantage members have heart failure (HF), and they account for 15% of Medicare Advantage plan hospitalizations. Additionally, 25% of those hospitalized are readmitted within 30 days. This is the cycle that RPM can break.

The evaluation results just released covered Medicare Advantage members for a 17-month period from January 1, 2008 to May 31, 2009. The HF cohort experienced 1,639 admissions per 1,000 during the 12-month baseline period.  A matched member cohort studied simultaneously experienced no decrease compared to the baseline rate.  However, during the same period, Tel-Assurance enrollees experienced an all cause hospital admission rate of only 351 per 1,000, a 79% decrease compared to the baseline period. Read the rest of this entry →

It seems more and more often lately, I’ve been reading about remote patient monitoring (RPM) and how different segments of the healthcare industry are turning to these technologies as an effective and cost-efficient means of reducing hospital readmissions. The lead sentence of a recent WSJ article read: “Technology that aims to keep congestive heart failure patients out of the hospital is gaining traction.”

This is a good thing. We at Pharos have been using behavior change technology and RPM as a very effective tool for keeping heart failure patients healthier for the past 14 years. Providers and home care agencies have been embracing and using it for years.

The WSJ article cites some examples of payers who are turning to RPM, too. We are encouraged by the growth we are seeing in that segment of the healthcare market – growth that clearly indicates that these types of technologies are becoming more broadly valued and accepted as a critical element in cost containment and improved health outcomes. Read the rest of this entry →

Healthcare reform is a hot topic. And rightly so. If done right, it has the potential to truly transform our healthcare delivery system. Recently, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, posted a piece on the Commonwealth Fund website which discussed the need to approach healthcare delivery in a coordinated and patient-centered way that focuses on keeping patients healthier.

Secretary Sebelius cites the statistic that two-thirds of Medicare spending goes toward beneficiaries with five or more chronic diseases. Yet under the current payment system, doctors are paid for quantity of individual services instead of for managing and coordinating the care of their patients across time and location.  She writes, “Dysfunctional incentives create fragmentation and fail to address the underlying drivers of disease.” And there are ways to create open communication between patients and care managers to address the drivers of disease and keep patients healthier, all at significant cost savings to Medicare.  We’ve seen it work. Read the rest of this entry →