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LifeCare®'s New SelfCareKitsSM
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LifeCare®'s New SelfCareKitsSM Far More Effective at Cutting Healthcare Expenses Than Disease Management
Kits help employers proactively address both direct and indirect costs of chronic conditions; successfully help individuals make long-term, sustainable lifestyle changes
WESTPORT, CT, July 17, 2007 - New research shows that there is a far more effective solution than traditional disease management programs for helping employers proactively
curb healthcare expenses: SelfCareKits
SM from LifeCare
®, Inc., provider of comprehensive specialty care services and a longtime specialty
care services provider and a longtime leader in the work/life industry.
LifeCare's SelfCareKits address the six most pervasive conditions that afflict individuals and cause employers' healthcare costs to soar-uncontrolled asthma, back pain, high blood
pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. Each kit contains an array of innovative products and tools designed specifically to enable independent self-care and foster
long-term health improvements.
According to tests conducted by consumer research firm Communication Science, Inc., LifeCare's SelfCareKits have a significantly higher rate of success than the standard
disease management programs and educational tools offered by many employers. For example, LifeCare's SelfCareKit for Blood Pressure Control was tested against an employer-funded
combination of telephonic coaching and a walk-in clinic. The SelfCareKit helped 88% of participating hypertensive employees reach the blood pressure goal of 140/80, while the
telephonic coaching and walk-in clinic solution helped just 18% reach the goal.
In another test, LifeCare's SelfCareKit for Asthma Control was evaluated against asthma literature from the American Lung Association. After six months, only 44% of participants
receiving the American Lung Association's literature were still in compliance with medication guidelines and following practices to keep themselves healthy. In comparison,
six months after receiving the SelfCareKit for Asthma Control, 95% of participants were still in medical compliance and following healthy practices. What's more, 16% of
those using the American Lung Association literature were readmitted to a hospital due to asthma within the study period, while nobody using the SelfCareKit was readmitted.
And while 26% of the former group used an Emergency Room to deal with an asthma-related problem, only 7% of those using the SelfCareKit did so.
"Offering workers resources to improve their health can pay huge organizational dividends--if you can actually get them to make long-term changes to their lifestyles,"
said LifeCare CEO, Peter G. Burki. "Nothing does that as effectively as our SelfCareKits. Frankly, traditional disease management programs have fallen short of expectations,
and employers continue to pay out millions of dollars every year for employees' unmanaged chronic conditions. Our SelfCareKits deliver the results employers need and at a
fraction of the cost of most disease management programs."
Controlling Direct and Indirect Costs
Communication Science, Inc. estimates that employers are losing $1.5 million to $2.6 million per year, per 1,000 employees, to asthma, diabetes and heart disease.
These direct costs are relatively easy to calculate, since they impact an organization's bottom line in terms of dollars paid for doctor visits, hospital stays and medication.
The indirect costs to an employer, such as decreased productivity and increased absenteeism, due to these chronic conditions are more difficult to quantify but can be far
more extensive than even the direct costs.
Burki says that LifeCare's SelfCareKits are uniquely effective at controlling both direct and indirect costs because they are provided to individuals before they
experience a crisis event (such as an emergency medical procedure or hospital stay), whereas traditional disease management programs are provided after a costly
crisis event has taken place, so there's no opportunity to avoid those costs. It's the difference between a proactive step and a reactive one, Burki says.
"Also, when individuals are enrolled in a disease management program, they often aren't truly committed to it for the long term," Burki notes. "They are forced to take
part in the program for six months or so and then they're left on their own. Unfortunately, many of them revert to their old behaviors. SelfCareKits, on the other hand,
are provided to individuals as part of a long-range program of support and ongoing education. They help people take charge of their own health rather than rely on
doctors or coaches, and that helps them make lasting, sustainable changes."
Burki also believes the SelfCareKits are so effective because of the advanced research and communications techniques used to develop them--the same techniques that the world's
leading manufacturers use to develop new consumer products. These techniques, most of which have never been applied to healthcare communications, include ethnography
(qualitative and quantitative fieldwork); mnemonics (memory aid); semiotics (the study of signs and symbols); and linguistic pragmatics (framing issues from the reader's point of view).
"These techniques not only make the kits and their contents far more engaging to people but also make them more effective in creating lasting lifestyle changes," he said.
"Too often programs promote 'clinical correctness' as the standard of excellence, the final stamp of approval on materials," explains Sylvia Aruffo, PhD, Research Director
for the SelfCareKits. "Instead, that's the starting point. With LifeCare's SelfCareKits, we not only ensure that materials are clinically correct but we make certain
they effectively communicate, as well."
LifeCare's six new SelfCareKits are available to employers immediately. The company plans to introduce a tobacco cessation kit later this year.
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