this story came from the wenatcha wa paper wenatcheeworld

A program for people with chronic illnesses that is being tested at Wenatchee Valley Medical Center could save the federal government billions of dollars if it were used for Medicare patients nationwide, a medical center official said.
The federal government will expand the test program to more patients in Wenatchee and other areas before deciding whether to make it available to all Medicare recipients who have one of three costly diseases.
At the program’s core is the Health Buddy, an electronic device into which patients enter specifics about their disease every day. It helps doctors catch serious problems before they escalate, officials say.
"We keep patients out of the emergency room and the hospital. There’s nothing magic about what we’ve done," said Dr. David Weber, CEO of Wenatchee Valley Medical Center. About 450 Medicare patients have been using the device for the last three years.
The patients all have one of three conditions — diabetes, congestive heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as COPD.
They are asked to answer a dozen questions daily, including specific information related to their condition, such as blood sugar level, and the results are checked daily by health care professionals. A doctor is alerted if necessary.
Those patients were compared with another group of Medicare patients who didn’t have a Health Buddy. Depending on the illness, hospital admissions and stays dropped by 20 to 30 percent for patients with a Health Buddy, said Derek Newell, CEO of Health Hero, the California company that makes the device.
They’ve had the same kind of success in a four-year study of more than 10,000 veterans through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, he said.
Newell said Health Hero’s goal was to reduce the cost of treating chronic illnesses by 5 percent, and they exceeded it.
Weber said the percentage of savings is in the double digits. "There are potentially billions of dollars to be saved with this kind of model, if we could extend it to the entire Medicare population," he said.
He said it may be difficult for smaller clinics to replicate the success at Wenatchee Valley Medical Center because they may not have sufficient staff to check answers from patients every day or be able to schedule an appropriate appointment when problems arise.
Newell said patients with the three chronic illnesses tested in the Health Buddy program represent only about 10 percent of the Medicare population, but those patients cost the system 50 to 75 percent of total costs.
"Even with a small percent of the patients, you impact a big percentage of the costs," he said.
Medicare wants to expand the number of patients using the Health Buddy at both Wenatchee Valley Medical Center and a clinic in Bend, Ore., and bring it to other clinics that haven’t yet been selected, Newell said.
Lori Smet, nurse case manager at Wenatchee Valley Medical Center who coordinates the Health Buddy program, said they’ll be looking to keep current patients in the study and add about 1,000 more patients from around the region.
Smet said she finds that patients who use the Health Buddy tend to pay more attention to their health.
"Part of the effect is they know somebody is checking in on them on a daily basis, and that really gives them an added incentive to do what they’re supposed to be doing," she said.
Weber said he was in Washington, D.C., last week to meet with lawmakers from Washington state, and told them about the pilot study and the initial success.
He said he’s hoping the program will be included in some of the health care reform legislation that is now being drafted.
"It’s very, very consistent with the new president’s mantra," added Newell. "It has to improve quality and reduce costs, and this dramatically reduces costs and improves quality. It’s one of the very few projects out there that meets that criteria," he said.
K.C. Mehaffey: 997-2512
mehaffey@wenatcheeworld.com