Population Health
According to a survey administered by Employee Benefit News, at least 70% of employees find high stress, depression, asthma, or diabetes disruptive enough to affect their everyday lives, including work and other responsibilities. In response, the vast majority of employers (84%) are offering digital health tools in some form that can help employees manage common chronic conditions, although only an average of 50% of employees take advantage of these benefits. Research shows employees want flexible options that offer new innovative tools to treat their chronic conditions, in addition to education to help them get started with a new program. Third-party technology vendors can assist in driving employee engagement, mitigating rising health care costs, and creating better outcomes for employees. Managed care and payer professionals will find these insights useful for developing programs that offer value to purchasers of health care.
“Optimizing Digital Health Tools to Retain and Engage Employees.” Employee Benefit News Supplement.
Learn MoreIn an interview with OBG Management, Dr. Celeste Durnwald explains the benefits of real-time continuous glucose monitoring (RT-CGM) in pregnancy. Risk to fetal, neonatal, and maternal well-being is increased in pregnancy complicated by diabetes. While most patients obtain 7 to 8 glucose values over 24 hours with self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG), RT-CGM collects approximately 288 readings daily. In this manner, RT-CGM may help pregnant women align their carbohydrate intake and insulin dosing throughout the day to prevent hyperglycemia while avoiding sudden hypoglycemic events, all without the burden of finger sticks. The CONCEPTT trial showed that only 6 patients would need to use RT-CGM to prevent 1 large-for-gestational-age infant, 8 patients to prevent a case of neonatal hypoglycemia, and 6 patients to prevent a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) stay. Based on these findings and other published literature, consensus guidelines recommend the use of RT-CGM in pregnant women with pre-existing type 1 and type 2 diabetes, as well as in those with gestational diabetes. These findings offer insights for payer professionals seeking to implement evidence-based quality improvement programs in diabetes or obstetrics.
Durnwald CP. Real-Time Continuous Glucose Monitoring Use in Pregnant Patients From A-to-Z. OBG Management. August 2022.
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Source: Population Health Management
Programmatic integrated approaches have been used successfully and cost-effectively to manage various chronic conditions. The incorporation of rtCGM in similar integrated approaches to diabetes management presents an opportunity to improve quality outcomes and reduce costs on a population level. This publication details the evidence to suggest it may be time to support broader adoption to incorporate the use of rtCGM.
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In 2021, NCQA and HL7 hosted the fifth annual Digital Quality Summit (DQS) that convened stakeholders within six distinct “tracks” – each track exploring a different subset of healthcare. Track 6 of the Digital Quality Summit featured five breakout sessions that covered topics such as Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM), diabetes distress, digital measurement and measure concepts related to diabetes care, optimal care for individuals with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, NCQA’s own Diabetes Recognition Program, and more.
The Rethinking Diabetes Care in the Digital Age white paper contains findings from track 6 of the Digital Quality Summit and is broken down into the following sections:
1. Importance of Measurement in Diabetes Care beyond HbA1c and Depression
2. Optimal Diabetes Care Management and Continuous Glucose Monitoring
3. Behavioral Aspects in Diabetes Care and Diabetes Distress
4. Health Equity in Diabetes Care Management
5. Driving Improvements in Diabetes Care and the Diabetes Recognition Program
Learn MorePresented by:
Daniel DeSalvo, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Section of Diabetes and Endocrinology
Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital
Houston TX
In diverse and underserved populations research shows there are racial and ethnic disparities in diabetes outcomes. Disparities in diabetes technology use has the greatest influence on glycemic disparities between Black, Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White individuals. A study recently published in Diabetes Care found that lower socio-economic status was associated with lower rates of diabetes technology use and higher levels of A1C. Importantly, this gap in technology has widened over time. Data published from the T1D exchange, shows that across all age groups, individuals that use continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) have lower A1C levels compared to those who don’t use CGM.
This webinar will highlight the improvements in glycemic and psychosocial outcomes, along with best practices from recent research findings that support the use of CGM in diverse populations.
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Expert: (Formerly) Vice President Clinical Strategy and Programs and Industry Relations, MagellanRx Management (Currently Chief Clinical Officer, Cooperative Benefits Group)
Summary: In this video interview Dr. Dunn discusses best practices and considerations for payers when they consider moving CGM coverage to the pharmacy benefit, application of utilization management, and more.