Telehealth Readmissions at Geisinger Health Plans

Geisinger Health Plan published a study that found that a multi-year telemonitoring intervention for heart-failure patients led to reductions in readmissions and cost.

Geisinger monitored 541 heart-failure patients who were enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plan from January 1, 2007, to October 31, 2012. All of the study participants were 65 years of age and older, had a confirmed heart-failure diagnosis, had high prevalence of co-morbidities and maintained GHP membership for the entire study period.

The researchers found that the odds of a patient being admitted to the hospital during any given month was 23 percent lower for those in the telemonitoring program, and patients enrolled in the program had lower odds of being readmitted at 30 days (44 percent) and 90 days (38 percent). Geisinger found that the overall return on investment for every $1 was $3.30 for an overall per member per month (PMPM) savings of $216.

TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE…

This article is subscriber content and requires a subscription. If you have a subscription, then please Login here. If you do not have a subscription, you may purchase one below.