Health Plan Performance Improving Slightly for Diabetes, But More Work Needed

The National Business Coalition on Health's just released 2009 Health Plan Diabetes Performance report shows that there is only slight improvement in outreach and outcomes for diabetics in the surveyed plans. Approximately 81% of the diabetics had at least one A1C test, but approximately 43% of them had uncontrolled blood sugar levels.

These challenging outcomes exist even while large numbers of plans and their customers are using:

• Disease management
• Personal health assessments
• Gaps in care reminders for physicians
• NCQA's physician recognition program which identifies physicians with quality outcomes for their diabetic patients. 

Dennis White, Senior VP for Value-Based Purchasing at NBCH states, "Now the challenge is getting consumers engaged, using the tools, but also better coordination with employers for things like plan design and cultural reinforcement, and doctors to track and act on gaps in care.”

So, what are you doing in your plan design to help your outcomes improve?

This annual report is based upon results for the 70 health planscovering approximately 96 million Americans that particated in NBCH's 2009 eValue8 program. In Tennessee, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and CIGNA Healthcare of TN provided information through Memphis Business Group on Health.

Click here to read the Business Insurance article on the report.

Click here to access a copy of the report.