WALTHAM, Mass.—Aetna and Fresenius Medicare Care announced Feb. 10 the launch of a joint chronic kidney disease management program.
The program focuses on the coordination of care among specialists, primary care providers and nurses with the goal of improving clinical outcomes and reducing costs.
Through the coordination members at risk are identified to improve clinical management in earlier stages of kidney disease to help slow the progression to kidney failure.
The program will also include daily communication of the member’s biometric and health status through a wireless communication device that helps the care team identify, address or even prevent potentially serious complications.
Aetna commercial and Medicare medical members in targeted Northeast markets currently have access to the new program. Additional expansion is expected throughout 2012.
"We believe the model will improve our members' quality of life by helping them and their doctors better manage the conditions contributing to or resulting from chronic kidney disease," said Roger London, MD, Aetna’s Northeast Region medical director. “If dialysis becomes necessary we want to help members begin dialysis with the lowest risk for complications."
The program is modeled on Fresenius Health Partners’ successful five-year demonstration project with Medicare beneficiaries on dialysis. Concluded last year with the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the project resulted in health care costs 12 percent below the Medicare Advantage and four percent below the Medicare fee-for-service benchmarks for this population, according to Fresenius. At the same time patients in the program experienced overall improvement in clinical measures including a 24 percent improvement in the rate of mortality and a 20 percent reduction in all-cause hospitalization versus national benchmarks.
"Our company’s focus and expertise is comprehensive renal therapy management. As rates of diabetes, obesity and heart disease climb and threaten to dramatically increase the incident rates for renal disease, we want to assist payers, doctors and patients by providing the highest quality and most cost-effective care now," said Peter Sauer, president at Fresenius Health Partners.
