LifeMasters’ Success Story

Twenty-six patients with congestive heart failure (CHF), who were members of a Northern California managed care organization, participated in the LifeMasters program for an eight-month observation period. An additional 102 CHF patients from the same managed care organization were assigned to a control group. At the end of the data collection period, LifeMasters reported the following interventions and outcomes:

• 166 abnormal vital signs or symptoms were reported to physicians. 26% of those reports of abnormal findings resulted in interventions within 14 days of report.

• There were 25 hospital admissions for 14 patients. Eleven admissions, or 44%, were related to CHF. Physician received preadmission notification in 82% of cases.

• 70% of physicians rated the program useful or better.

• The average patient compliance rate was 83%, meaning that patients called the computer and entered their vital signs at least eight days out of 10.

• Program patients averaged $390 per patient-month for hospital room claims, compared to $609 for the control group.

• Emergency room services dropped 66% in the program group, compared to a 25% drop in the control group.

TeleHealth’s Success Story

A recent study of congestive heart failure patients from Crozer-Keystone Health System in Springfield, PA, compared outcomes for 48 patients enrolled in the TeleHealth patient monitoring program with those of 22 patients in a control group. Key findings include the following:

• Patients in the TeleHealth group had a readmission rate of 10.4%, compared with a readmission rate of 74% for the control group.

• The cost of home care for the TeleHealth group was $1,585 per patient, compared with $1,891 for the control group.

• The total cost per case was $2,085 for the TeleHealth group, compared with $5,352 for the control group.