WASHINGTON – Health plans have shown incremental progress each year in improving health for diabetics and controlling costs for treatment of diabetes, but they still have a long way to go, according to a new report.
The annual report was released May 24 by the National Business Coalition on Health.
"Employers are faced with growing numbers of employees with diabetes and continually rising obesity rates will only make this worse," said Andrew Webber, the NBCH's president and CEO. "While the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes important delivery system reforms, employers still have a direct hand in affecting health outcomes by selecting health plans and making choices about the value of their plan offerings.”
According to Webber, the report will help healthcare purchasers, such as employers, hold their plans accountable on preventing costly chronic conditions such as diabetes.
[See also: WellPoint lands grant to expand award-winning diabetes program.]
The "eValue8 Employer Report on 2010 Health Plan Diabetes Care Performance" outlines the landscape of diabetes care for employers, including the importance of treatment goals and the approaches used by plans to prevent the disease and improve its care, according to Webber.
According to the report, 59 percent of the health plans surveyed waive or adjust out-of-pocket payments for diabetes tests, treatments and prescriptions.
All health plans reported the ability to promote the use of personal health assessments to members and the capability to provide incentives; however, many employers elect not to use incentives or the plan as the wellness vendor, resulting in only 3 percent of members completing a PHA.
When the employer uses an incentive program, 81 percent have the capability to administer a financial incentive program for members, and 78 percent have the capability to administer non-financial incentives such as gift cards, the study found.
Diabetes disease management is almost universally offered, with 88 percent of plans reporting the service.
[See also: Novo Nordisk questions U.S. diabetes funding.]
Trends related to motivating doctors and hospitals in the report included leveraging data on physician performance to drive improvements, with 91 percent of plans indicating they have the capability to report back to doctors on gaps in quality of care for individual patients.
Seventy-eight percent of plans can now show physicians how they compare with peers, the study showed.
The study also found health plans are investing in, developing and testing coordinated care systems. Approximately 60 percent of plans are participating in patient-centered medical home pilots and 79 percent report making performance-based payments.
The full report can be found here.
