The Midwest Health Purchasers Collaborative (MHPC, an affiliate of MBGH) and the Illinois Pharmacists Association (IPhA) partner to provide employers and their covered employees with the chronic disease management program, Taking Control of Your Health (TCOYH). The program utilizes a proven value-based benefits model that improves the quality of care and reduces overall health care costs for people with chronic conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Program Overview
An employer-sponsored patient self-management program that utilizes specially trained pharmacists to conduct face-to-face meetings with the employee to help educate, motivate and empower them to better manage their condition.
- Replication of the highly successful diabetes self-management program, the Asheville Project
- Employers waive co-pays for medications and related supplies for chronic conditions such as diabetes
- Employees voluntarily participate in regular visits with specially trained local pharmacists
- Pharmacists are paid to conduct regular screenings, coaching and coordinate care with physicians
Judy Hearn, former Health & Welfare Manager
Reynolds Leveraged Services
Why do we participate in TCOYH?
|
Benefits of Participation
A tested, innovative health benefits solution, in line with value-based benefits that can:
- Improve delivery of care through an integrated care model that encourages collaboration among all health care stakeholders
- Empower participants to better manage their chronic condition and improve their overall health
- Provide employers support by providing a link between covered employees and dependents with certified, community pharmacists
- Inform participant's physician with results and findings obtained during pharmacist visits
- Gives a program certificate to qualified participants that acknowledges attainment of a preferred level of skill in managing their condition
- Provide participating employers (with >50 participants enrolled) clinical, economic and participant satisfaction reports after 12 months in the program
Keys to Success:
Incentives and Motivation
The program model aligns incentives to encourage collaboration among health care stakeholders to teach participants how to better self-manage their condition and improve their overall health. The improved self-management results in a reduction in preventable hospitalizations and other high cost medical services. Aligned economic incentives begin with the employer who provides an incentive to participants, such as reduced or waived co-payments for diabetes-related medication while active in the program and provides payment to the certified diabetes educators and pharmacists for providing education and diabetes care management. The employer will receive a return on investment as a result of healthier workers, decreased absenteeism, and a decrease in overall health care costs.
Diabetes Disease Management Yields Big Cost Savings - Workforce Management
Pharmacist-led diabetes program shows promise - Reuters
New Tact on Copays: Cutting Them - Wall Street Journal
Some Employers Are Offering Free Drugs - New York Times
Firms gang up on diabetes - Chicago Tribune
[i] Cranor CW, Bunting BA, Christensen DB. The Asheville Project: Long-Term Clinical and Economic Outcomes of a Community Pharmacy Diabetes Care Program. J Am Pharm Assoc. 2003;43:173–84. [ii] Garrett DG, Bluml BM. Patient Self-Management Program for Diabetes: First-Year Clinical, Humanistic, and Economic Outcomes. J Am Pharm Assoc.2005;45:130-137