System and method for a lifestyle management system

• US 8,666,763 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2007
• Issued: 03/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Walgreen Co. (Walgreens Boots Alliance Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Walgreen Co. (Walgreens Boots Alliance Incorporated)
• Inventors: Fabius, Raymond, Kirkpatrick, Patricia
• Primary Examiner(s): SEOH, MINNAH L
• Application Number:
  US11/855,441
• Publication Number:
  US 20080103369A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,363 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2- 3
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/70 relating to mental therapies, e.g. psychological therapy or autogenous training
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring

Abstract

An apparatus, method, and system for the design, administration and implementation of a lifestyle management program. The lifestyle management system maximizes contact and enrollment rates of traditional lifestyle management. This is accomplished through the creation of a system that combines telephonic-delivered lifestyle management (i.e. traditional lifestyle management) with work-site based health center clinician (“trusted clinician”). The lifestyle management program is characterized by the involvement of a trusted clinician who actively participates in the program by being involved in the stratification process, the contact step and the process of creating and updating the patient'"'"'s individualized care plan. Therefore, the lifestyle management program allows the clinician to be involved in both contact and enrollment phases of the program. The lifestyle management program further increases the efficiency of the program by improving overall health through behavior modification. The benefit of such a program is the reduction of health risk by effectively changing lifestyle behaviors which, in turn, allows employers administering the program to realize higher returns on their investment into such programs.

Claims

1. A method for implementing a lifestyle management program using a controller, said method comprising:

generating a base target population of patients by analyzing, using said controller, medical history data of each of a plurality of patients to determine a subset of said plurality of patients who are expected to realize a higher benefit from enrolling in said lifestyle management program than other patients of said plurality of patients, wherein said base target population of patients is said subset of said plurality of patients;

generating, using said controller, a list of one or more patients in said base target population of patients that have had a previous contact with a clinician;

providing, using said controller, said medical history data of each patient in said list of one or more patients in said base target population of patients to said a trusted clinician with whom said patient has had a previous contact;

receiving, using said controller, for each patient of said base target population of patients in said list of one or more patients, an indication from said trusted clinician with whom said patient has had said previous contact as to whether said patient is an appropriate candidate for enrollment in said lifestyle management program, wherein said trusted clinician with whom said patient has had said previous contact provides said indication based on a review of said medical history data of said patient;

generating, using said controller, a final target population of patients, wherein said final target population of patients is a subset of said base target population of patients, wherein each patient of said final target population of patients has been indicated, by said trusted clinician with whom said patient has had said previous contact, to be an appropriate candidate for enrollment in said lifestyle management program based on said review of said medical history data of said patient;

contacting patients from said final target population of patients, wherein, for each patient, said contact is made by said trusted clinician with whom said patient has had said previous contact;

providing, using said controller, an identification of an adjusted target population of patients to a case manager responsible for enrolling patients from said adjusted target population of patients in said lifestyle management program, wherein said adjusted target population comprises each patient from said final target population of patients who has agreed, during said contact by said trusted clinician with whom said patient has had said previous contact, to be contacted by said case manager for enrollment in said lifestyle management program after said contact by said trusted clinician;

contacting said patients from said adjusted target population of patients for enrollment in said lifestyle management program, wherein, for each patient, said contact is made by said case manager after receiving said identification of said adjusted target population of patients;

enrolling, using said controller, at least one patient from said adjusted target population of patients in said lifestyle management program, wherein said enrolling is performed by said case manager after receiving said identification of said adjusted target population of patients; and

generating a care plan for each enrolled patient, wherein said care plan is developed based upon interaction between one or more of said enrolled patient, said trusted clinician with whom said enrolled patient has had said previous contact, and a nurse coach.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said trusted clinician is part of an on-site health clinic or pharmacy.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a list of said final target population of patients by at least one of:

(i) a central facility to a remote terminal within a peer-to-peer network or any data communication network capable of transmitting and receiving data from said central facility to said remote terminal;

or

(ii) an email, fax, secure message, phone call or other standard communication method.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein providing, using said controller, said identification of said adjusted target population of patients to said case manager comprises providing said identification by at least one of:

(i) a central facility to a remote terminal within a peer-to-peer network or any data communication network capable of transmitting and receiving data from said central facility to said remote terminal;

or

(ii) an email, fax, secure message, phone call or other standard communication method.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said case manager is at least one of a registered nurse, a health service representative or a lifestyle management representative.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each patient from said final target population of patients is contacted by at least one of:

(i) said trusted clinician during said patient'"'"'s regularly scheduled visit to an on-site health clinic;

(ii) said trusted clinician during said patient'"'"'s visit to an on-site pharmacy to pick up prescribed medication;

or

(iii) said trusted clinician outside of said patient'"'"'s visit to an on-site health clinic and via any one of an email, a fax, a secure message, a phone call or other standard communication method.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said trusted clinician is a clinician with whom said patient has a preexisting medical relationship.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising rendering individualized patient care to each of said enrolled patients from a list of said adjusted target population of patients in accordance with said generated care plan.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein rendering said individualized patient care includes coaching sessions with said nurse coach.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein patient information for each of a list of said final target population of patients and a list of said adjusted target population of patients is stored in a central facility that can be accessed from a remote terminal connected to said central facility via a network.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a re-enrollment population of patients, wherein each patient in said re-enrollment population has at least one of a group of health risks for developing a disease requiring lifestyle management, is eligible to enroll for lifestyle management, and is eligible for re-enrollment in said lifestyle management program;

transmitting a list of said re-enrollment population of patients to said nurse coach;

contacting said patients from said list of said re-enrollment population of patients, wherein said contact is made by said nurse coach;

completing assessment of each of at least one of said contacted patients; and

re-enrolling at least one of said contacted patients in said lifestyle management program.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein each of said patients eligible for re-enrollment in said lifestyle management program is at least one of:

a patient who is currently not enrolled in said lifestyle management program;

a patient of said final target population of patients who declined enrollment during said contact by said trusted clinician with whom said patient has had said previous contact;

a patient of said adjusted target population of patients who declined enrollment during said contact by said case manager;

a patient who has contacted a health clinic or a trusted clinician with whom said patient had a previous contact to enroll into said lifestyle management program;

a patient who was previously enrolled in said lifestyle management program which has since expired;

or

a patient who is a new employee or is newly diagnosed with at least one of said group of health risks.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein said trusted clinician is any one of a primary care physician, a registered nurse, a nurse'"'"'s assistant, a pharmacist, or a pharmacy assistant.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of patients comprises an eligible population of patients selected from a group of patients having at least one of a group of health risks for developing disease requiring lifestyle management, wherein each eligible population patient is eligible to enroll for lifestyle management, and wherein generating said base target population of patients is performed based on predictive modeling of at least one of improved health benefits or avoidable health costs.

11. A method for implementing a lifestyle management program using a controller, said method comprising:

receiving, from said controller, an identification of a base target population of patients generated by said controller by using a predictive model on a population of patients who are eligible to enroll in said lifestyle management program to determine, for each of said eligible patients;

(i) an amount of health costs said patient is expected to incur that may be avoided by enrollment in said lifestyle management program; and

(ii) a prediction of future health benefits corresponding to said amount of health costs that said patient may avoid by enrolling in said lifestyle management program, wherein said base target population of patients is a subset of said eligible population of patients who are expected to realize a higher benefit, based on said predictive modeling of said amount of health costs that may be avoided and said corresponding future health benefits, than other ones of said eligible patients;

receiving, from said controller, a list of one or more patients in said base target population of patients that have had a previous contact with a clinician;

providing an indication to said controller, for each patient in said list of one or more patients in said base target population of patients, as to whether said patient is an appropriate candidate for enrollment in said lifestyle management program based on a review of medical history data of said patient by a trusted clinician with whom said patient has a preexisting medical relationship;

receiving, from said controller, an identification of a final target population of patients, wherein said final target population of patients is a subset of said base target population of patients, wherein each patient of said final target population of patients is a patient who has been indicated to be an appropriate candidate for enrollment in said lifestyle management program based on said review of said medical history data of said patient by said trusted clinician with whom said patient has said preexisting medical relationship;

contacting patients from said final target population of patients, wherein, for each patient, said contact is made by said trusted clinician with whom said patient has said preexisting medical relationship;

receiving, from said controller, an identification of an adjusted target population of patients, wherein said adjusted target population comprises each patient from said final target population of patients who has agreed, during said contact by said trusted clinician with whom said patient has said preexisting medical relationship, to enroll in said lifestyle management program; and

rendering individualized patient care, to each patient enrolled in said lifestyle management program, by said trusted clinician with whom said enrolled patient has said preexisting medical relationship, wherein each enrolled patient is at least one of a member of said adjusted target population of patients or a patient contacted for enrollment in said lifestyle management program by a case manager who does not have a medical relationship with said patient prior to contacting said patient for said enrollment in said lifestyle management program, and wherein an individualized care plan for each of said enrolled patients is developed based upon interaction between said enrolled patient and at least one of said trusted clinician with whom said enrolled patient has said preexisting medical relationship or a nurse coach.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein receiving, from said controller, said identification of said final target population of patients comprises receiving said identification by at least one of:

(i) a central facility to a remote terminal within a peer-to-peer network or any data communication network capable of transmitting and receiving data from said central facility to said remote terminal;

or

(ii) an email, fax, secure message, phone call or other standard communication method.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein receiving, from said controller, said identification of said adjusted target population of patients comprises receiving said identification by at least one of:

(i) a central facility to a remote terminal within a peer-to-peer network or any data communication network capable of transmitting and receiving data from said central facility to said remote terminal;

or

(ii) an email, fax, secure message, phone call or other standard communication method.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein each patient from said final target population of patients is contacted by at least one of:

(i) said trusted clinician during said patient'"'"'s regularly scheduled visit to an on-site health clinic;

(ii) said trusted clinician during said patient'"'"'s visit to an on-site pharmacy to pick up prescribed medication;

or

(iii) said trusted clinician outside of said patient'"'"'s visit to an on-site health clinic and via any one of an email, a fax, a secure message, a phone call or other standard communication method.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein said trusted clinician is either a pharmacist or a pharmacy assistant.

21. The method of claim 11, wherein said eligible population of patients comprises patients selected from a group of patients having at least one of a group of health risks for developing disease requiring lifestyle management, and wherein each eligible population patient is eligible to enroll for lifestyle management.

17. A method for implementing a lifestyle management program using a controller, said method comprising:

identifying, using said controller, a population of patients who are eligible to enroll in said lifestyle management program;

generating, using said controller, a base target population of patients from said eligible population of patients based on predictive modeling of at least one of improved health benefits or avoidable health costs, wherein said base target population of patients is a subset of said eligible population of patients;

generating, using said controller, a list of one or more patients in said base target population of patients that have had a previous contact with a clinician;

receiving, using said controller, for each patient of said base target population of patients in said list of one or more patients, an indication from a trusted said clinician with whom said patient has had a previous contact as to whether said patient is an appropriate candidate for enrollment in said lifestyle management program, wherein said trusted clinician with whom said patient has had said previous contact provides said indication based on a review of medical history data of said patient;

generating, using said controller, a final target population of patients, wherein said final target population of patients is a subset of said base target population of patients, wherein each patient of said final target population of patients has been indicated, by said trusted clinician with whom said patient has had said previous contact, to be an appropriate candidate for enrollment in said lifestyle management program based on said review of said medical history data of said patient;

contacting patients from said final target population of patients, wherein, for each patient, said contact is made by said trusted clinician with whom said patient has had said previous contact;

providing, using said controller, an identification of an adjusted target population of patients to a case manager responsible for enrolling patients from said adjusted target population of patients in said lifestyle management program, wherein said adjusted target population comprises each patient from said final target population of patients who has agreed, during said contact by said trusted clinician with whom said patient has had said previous contact, to be contacted by said case manager for enrollment in said lifestyle management program after said contact by said trusted clinician;

contacting said patients from said adjusted target population of patients for enrollment in said lifestyle management program, wherein, for each patient, said contact is made by said case manager after receiving said identification of said adjusted target population of patients;

enrolling at least one patient from said adjusted target population of patients in said lifestyle management program, wherein said enrolling is performed by said case manager after receiving said identification of said adjusted target population of patients; and

generating a care plan for each enrolled patient.