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Program shows diabetic care quality improvement

December 11, 2008 — 10:25am ET | By Anne Zieger
Tools
Tags
Mddatacor
HgA1C
Diabetes
Case Study
BlueCross BlueShield (BCBS)

Score another point for quality improvement using health IT: Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Iowa and its partner MDdatacor have reported positive results from their year-long quality improvement program. The program worked with over 9,000 diabetic patients and their doctors to provide the clinicians with information that would help them manage their patient's diabetes more effectively.

And based on the results, it would seem that it was a resounding success. Prior to the study, only 46 percent of patients were even getting their annual HgA1C test; by the end of the program that number rose to 90 percent.

The percentage of patients with an HgA1C level less than 8 also rose from 37 percent at the beginning to 75 percent at the end. The HgA1C level measures how well controlled a diabetic's glucose levels are.

To learn more about the program:
- read this press release
- read the case study results (.pdf)

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Comments

By Anonymous | Posted 5:56am | March 26, 2009

How is it any sort of feather in their cap? Yes, this is a step towards being proactive, preventative, but it's certainly not bragging rights.

You want something to brag about? Take off the price increases for diabetic people, both those enrolled already and those coming to you for insurance. If you want everyone insured and pitching in, stop asking for $400+ a month by the checkboxes.

Now BCBS is saying that they're willing to eliminate pre-existing conditions. How nice! Isn't age a pre-existing condition? What about location? The potential insured lived there before they contacted you and was born before asking for a rate. How about you just insure people.

The entirety of insurance works on the idea that everyone is pitching into a pool. So why are you singling people out when you have to pay?

Maybe insurance should be paid like contractors -- 10% of what they write from their checkbook. It'd be a pay cut, but at least then it'd be equitable.

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