Milwaukee, WI and Columbia, MD – May 14, 2019 – The Business Health Care Group (BHCG), a coalition of employers located throughout eastern Wisconsin, recently announced a partnership with Welldoc, a leading digital therapeutic company working with individuals with chronic diseases. The company will offer its award-winning digital assistant BlueStar program to BHCG member employers at preferred rates. BlueStar is a web and mobile in-app coach designed to engage people with type 2 diabetes. It delivers precision-based real-time feedback, diabetes educational tools, and provides actionable insights to the user’s care team to optimize care.
The program is available to employers and their plan participants, both locally and nationally (including outside of the BHCG 22-county Wisconsin region), either through full BHCG membership or on a stand-alone basis.
Says BHCG executive director Jeffrey Kluever, “One of the biggest challenges for employers today is finding effective resources for people to better self-manage their chronic diseases – and diabetes is at the top of the list for most employers. Welldoc’s BlueStar diabetes management solution delivers best-in-class clinical outcomes and cost savings through personalized coaching and education that are tailored for the needs of the individual patient.”
Digital technology delivers actionable information – for patients and providers
BlueStar is the first FDA-cleared digital therapeutic for individuals with type 2 diabetes. It integrates with activity trackers, glucose meters and other devices to give useful insights to the user and his or her own care team. BlueStar technology works along with a physician’s treatment plan to help patients with type 2 diabetes control their blood glucose and understand their everyday diabetes decisions.
The BlueStar app tracks and analyzes a multitude of variables that impact diabetes on a daily basis, including blood glucose, food, blood pressure, medications, weight, activity and sleep. BlueStar’s artificial intelligence technology then monitors, analyzes and recognizes patterns from the user’s daily activity, using it to provide precise feedback and insights to help people self-manage their diabetes more successfully. With all patient information being tracked in one location, the user can share a SMART Visit Report with their physician for in-between patient visits to help them understand the specific issues and challenges they face in real-time.
A path to better health, outcomes and reduced costs
“Diabetes, when uncontrolled, can lead to an impaired quality of life and significant health care costs. Patients diagnosed with diabetes often struggle to change lifelong habits. Our technology is designed to provide them with support anytime, anywhere, and teach them the right steps to take on the path to better health. We believe our results are industry-leading and speak for themselves,” says Kevin McRaith, President and CEO at Welldoc.
In clinical trials, the BlueStar digital therapeutic has been shown to improve hemoglobin A1c, the primary metric used to monitor diabetes. The clinical evidence presented, shows a 1.7 to 2.0-point mean A1c reduction for adults living with type 2 diabetes who used BlueStar. When IBM Watson Health did an economic analysis against its MarketScan database, it demonstrated an estimated average cost savings of $254-$271 per user per month. Recent studies have also shown a 58 percent cost savings as a result of reduced hospital and ER visits with BlueStar use.
“We look forward to working with Welldoc to engage our member employers’ employees and dependents living with diabetes to help them improve their quality of life. We are confident it will be a game changing resource for employers who can experience significant cost savings through better health and outcomes,” says Kluever.
BHCG sees another distinct benefit to its Welldoc partnership. Explains Kluever, “The long-term plan is to leverage our collaboration with Welldoc and our other partners, such as Navitus Health Solutions, Quantum Health and our regional health systems to positively impact health care value – from treatment plans to quality improvement initiatives.
“Rather than working in individual silos, the solutions offered by our portfolio of strategic partners and the power of the integrated data it produces can be used to make a real difference in health care quality, outcomes and affordability.”
About Business Health Care Group
Business Health Care Group leverages member employer purchasing power and knowledge to lead change. The organization creates value through innovative, shared strategies to improve health care quality and cost efficiency for employers, employees and the community. BHCG membership exceeds 200,000 covered lives in the 22-county region of eastern Wisconsin. Visit BHCGWI.org to learn more.
About Welldoc
Welldoc® is a leading digital therapeutic company revolutionizing chronic disease management to help transform lives. The Company’s groundbreaking technology helps guide individuals through the complicated journey of living with chronic diseases, with a goal of helping them self-manage their conditions, while connecting them to their own healthcare team. By utilizing Welldoc’s digital therapeutic solutions, payers, employers and healthcare systems can streamline their resources by focusing on a digital health solution to help better manage their populations living with multiple and costly chronic diseases. Welldoc is based on a life science business model—having conducted multiple randomized clinical trials resulting in more than 40 peer-reviewed publications. IBM Watson Health™ conducted an innovative economic analysis for Welldoc using the MarketScan® Commercial Claims and Encounters Database and the MarketScan® Medicare Supplemental and Coordination of Benefits Database demonstrating an opportunity to save a range of $254 to $271 per user per month with the use of the flagship BlueStar® digital therapeutic. Welldoc has a solid foundation in the development of solutions for the management of diabetes and is rapidly creating other chronic disease solutions. This year, Welldoc secured a patent for the Software Engine Technology that powers BlueStar. Notably, this is the Company’s tenth issued patent. For more information, visit www.welldoc.com.
