DALLAS, Sept. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes account for about 70 percent of all U.S. deaths and approximately 75 percent of health care costs each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To combat these staggering statistics, the Dallas-Fort Worth Business Group on Health (DFWBGH) is partnering with American Airlines and UnitedHealthcare on a new health care improvement project that aims to enhance the quality, efficiency and outcomes of care in the outpatient setting.
The AIM for Excellence project complements American Airlines’ efforts to improve its employees’ health and well-being. The pilot program is available for American Airlines’ approximately 55,000 DFW-based employees and their family members and involves north Texas-area physicians.
“This is the first time in the DFW Metroplex that physicians, the business community and health plans have collaborated on standards to improve the quality of care for patients with heart disease, stroke and diabetes,” said Marianne Fazen, Ph.D., executive director of DFWBGH. The project is part of a series of Quality Improvement Programs launched by the business group providing comparative measures of health care quality, outcomes and care processes to improve the value of employer-sponsored health care.
A group of nearly 100 primary care physicians in north Texas, who treat a large number of American Airlines’ area employees and dependents, are participating in this quality improvement project. How these physicians treat patients with heart disease, stroke and diabetes will be evaluated over a 12- month period, using nationally-recognized clinical treatment guidelines as measures, such as checking patients’ blood pressure and cholesterol level. Insurance claims data will indicate how often these physicians are following the clinical treatment guidelines. Performance data for this “test group” of physicians will be compared with data for all primary care physicians in UnitedHealthcare’s north Texas provider network, as well as with national Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) ratings.
“By working collaboratively with the primary care physicians who are treating American Airlines’ DFW-based employees, we will model an outpatient care improvement project,” said Paul Solomon, MD, market medical director, UnitedHealthcare. “Our goals for this project with American Airlines include improving quality of care and employee health, and facilitating stronger physician/patient relationships.”
Many employers, including American Airlines, have active health promotion and disease management programs to help employees improve their health and reduce their risk for these diseases. However, the effectiveness of these workplace programs is often stymied by a lack of involvement of employees’ personal physicians in a proactive care management process.
“This unique collaboration with DFWBGH, American Airlines, UnitedHealthcare, and area physicians will ensure the best care available in north Texas for American Airlines’ employees and dependents who are at risk for heart disease, stroke and diabetes,” said Virginia Nisbet, health strategies director at American Airlines and president of the DFWBGH board of directors. “This differs from our existing wellness programs in that we are working directly with area physicians and our health plan administrator to proactively manage the care of at-risk patients. It’s a step in the right direction to ensure patients receive the right care at the right time.”
A key objective of this employer-led pilot program is to help physicians in north Texas improve the quality, efficiency and affordability of health care, while supporting physicians in delivering evidence-based medicine. Moving forward, the AIM for Excellence Project can serve as an effective model for improving outpatient care in other communities.
The second phase of the project, to start later this year, will focus on educating physicians, providing performance feedback to physicians, and equipping physicians with tools and resources to help them adhere to evidence- based treatment guidelines. Phase three will involve reporting the findings and recognizing participating physicians for their efforts to improve their patient care. The project is supported by an educational grant from sanofi aventis.
About Dallas-Fort Worth Business Group on Health
The Dallas-Fort Worth Business Group on Health is a 120-member coalition of Dallas and Fort Worth area employers committed to market-based health care reform. Programs and activities include: education programs on topics of key interest to employers; quality improvement initiatives providing comparative measures of quality, outcomes and care processes; relationship building initiatives; and legislative updates and analyses. Members include American Airlines, Bell Helicopter-Textron, EDS, JC Penney, Neiman Marcus, RadioShack, Southwest Airlines, Texas Instruments, TXU, Verizon, and others. DFWBGH’s goals are to empower employers to make informed health care purchasing decisions and to encourage health care providers to continuously improve their performance. http://www.dfwbgh.org.
Dallas-Fort Worth Business Group on Health
CONTACT: Cary Conway, +1-972-731-9242, cary@conwaycommunication.com, forDallas-Fort Worth Business Group on Health
Web site: http://www.dfwbgh.org/
