Case Study: HEALTHeLINK achieves improved diabetes outcomes and reduced emergency visits and costs with Optum360

Using Telemonitoring to Improve Health Outcomes and Reduce Health Care Costs for Diabetics

HEALTHeLINK, the regional health information exchange serving eight counties in Western New York, faced rapidly rising diabetes rates and was awarded a $16.1M Beacon grant to reduce emergency department visits, hospitalizations and readmissions for diabetic patients by 5%. To meet this challenge HEALTHeLINK deployed a telemonitoring pilot using the Axolotl HIE/Virtual Health Record platform (Axolotl HIE powered by OptumInsight) provided by Optum360, enabling remote capture and transmission of patient vitals into the health information exchange.

Optum360’s Axolotl-based solution linked in-home devices that capture 12 measurements (glucose, blood pressure, weight, pulse, oxygen saturation, etc.) to HEALTHeLINK via a secure network, with nurses training patients and triaging data to avoid physician workflow overload. Within six months nearly 100 patients were enrolled, the program averaged $216 per patient per month (expected to decline with scale), one patient’s A1C fell from >9% to 5.2% and participating practices requested more enrollments; HEALTHeLINK projects that avoiding just one ED visit per patient per year would offset pilot costs.

HEALTHeLINK

Dan Porreca

Executive Director