Chronic Illness Management

The number of patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes and congestive heart failure is a concern for all healthcare stakeholders. Patients and families struggle with how to manage these conditions in an increasingly stressful environment. Physicians are challenged with providing their patients with enough quality time, and insurers and employers are looking for ways to decrease medical costs while keeping their members and employees healthy.

ExpressMD partners with healthcare providers and insurers to create solutions for chronic disease management and success through telehealth. Our solution addresses many of the conditions that are a burden for patients, providers and health insurers.

Congestive Heart Failure (CHF)
The cost of caring for patients with heart failure can cost insurance companies as much as $20,000 annually. Utilizing a telehealth solution as part of a disease management program, payers can dramatically reduce the cost to care for this patient population. Our solution works with popular ECG measurement devices to collect and transmit arrhythmia data. Specialists and primary care physicians are able to remotely monitor patients to ensure that they are getting better. This helps reduce hospital readmission rates while keeping patients healthy.

Diabetes
Many of the 24 million individuals in the US diagnosed with diabetes have responded positively to telehealth programs for management of their disease. Telehealth makes it easier to keep patients in compliance with care plans as data about their vital signs, physical and emotional state is received. Coordinated care for diabetics can make living with the disease less stressful for the patient, their family members and providers. Health insurers and employers can also reduce their costs by ensuring that patients do not have a severe episode that requires an ER visit or hospitalization.

Hypertension
Monitoring a patient’s vital signs and everyday routine allows clinicians to properly care for patients with hypertension. This can also be a good way to keep well patients from developing bad habits that lead to developing a hypertensive condition. Since hypertension can contribute to so many other disorders, telehealth can be a good way to manage large patient populations with the condition, or at risk for developing the condition.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) refers to a group of lung diseases that block airflow and make it increasingly difficult for patients to breathe. It is the 4th leading cause of death in the United States.

Treating the more than 12 million people diagnosed with COPD every year in the United States is an increasingly costly and challenging proposition for our healthcare system. Once COPD is diagnosed, an in-home telehealth system incorporating reporting of patient vital signs to patients’ care providers along with medication schedule reminders and patient education has been proven to reduce overall care costs and improve patient outcomes.

Sleep Apnea
Electronic House Call can be used in the monitoring, management and optimization of a patient’s adherence to their Sleep Apnea therapy program. The EHC interface to CPAP devices enables care providers to remotely monitor and verify therapy compliance, which is madatory under Medicare PAP LCD requirements for adherence regulations for reimbursement of the services.

There are approximately 18 million Americans with sleep apnea. The National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research estimates that 40 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep disorders and another 20 to 30 million experience sleep problems intermittently. The commission estimated direct costs of sleeplessness at $15.9 billion annually and another $100 billion or more in indirect costs.