Successful weight management program leads to expanded 3-year agreement
HARTFORD, Conn., June 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Intellihealth is extending and expanding its partnership with the State of Connecticut to deliver the Flyte medical weight management program to eligible members of the state health plan.
Based on the success of a pilot program in which Flyte delivered virtual obesity care to State of Connecticut employees and their dependents, the State has chosen to extend the program for three years and expand the Flyte Health Model to include additional clinicians with obesity medicine expertise at brick-and-mortar locations in Connecticut. The State has also expanded coverage for retirees; eligible individuals in the Aetna Medicare Advantage (MA) program can participate in Flyte, and their treatment will be covered by the State’s MA Prescription Drug plan.
“The state employee health plan was seeing an unsustainable 50-percent year-over-year increase in spending on GLP-1 weight loss drugs,” said Comptroller Scanlon. “We recognize the potential of these medications to save the plan money in the long term, by decreasing the incidence of costly weight-related conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, but we needed to ensure the medications were being prescribed in a way that would produce the best outcomes for our members. Flyte has delivered compelling results, and we’re excited to be able to continue to provide cost-effective and clinically appropriate access to these life-changing medications.”
In addition to prescribing GLP-1 medications, Flyte clinicians optimize the use of low-cost generics and other anti-obesity medications (AOMs) to contain costs while providing the intensive education and support required to maximize outcomes and set patients up for long-term success.
“We’ve seen time and time again that just giving someone an AOM prescription and sending them home is not a recipe for success,” said Sloan Saunders, Intellihealth CEO. “The best outcomes are achieved when clinicians take the time to create a personalized treatment plan, ensure appropriate dose titration, monitor and optimize the care plan, and ensure that participants receive the necessary education and support to maintain healthy lifestyle changes over the long term. With the Flyte Health Model, participants lose a clinically significant amount of weight, enabling them to improve, resolve and/or prevent a wide range of weight-related health conditions.”
Intellihealth provides robust reporting tools that allow payers to monitor the effectiveness of the program at a population level, as well as analyze specific subpopulations. By leveraging claims and pharmacy benefit manager data, Intellihealth can also provide a cost-impact analysis.
The Flyte program is designed for people with a body mass index of 30 and above, or 27 and above with one or more weight-related comorbidities.
Integrated multidisciplinary Flyte care teams — comprised of physicians, registered dietitians, nurse practitioners, and care coordinators— create and continually fine-tune highly personalized weight management plans for participants based on the specific factors contributing to each individual’s weight gain. Plans incorporate nutrition, physical activity, and behavior modification as well as pharmacotherapy when indicated.
Flyte providers deliver care via a digital weight management platform, which offers patients convenient telehealth appointments and messaging; a virtual learning center; tools for meal planning; and easy tracking of food, physical activity and weight, incorporating data from wearables and connected devices.
The second phase of the State of Connecticut program increases access to care, particularly among higher-risk populations, by expanding to qualified providers beyond the Flyte network. The Flyte technology supports providers with an evidence-based clinical recommendation engine, a sophisticated provider dashboard, obesity-related educational resources, and collaboration between electronic health record systems. State of Connecticut plan participants who receive prescriptions for anti-obesity medications have the benefit of highly tailored comprehensive obesity care delivered by qualified providers who have the tools and resources for ongoing monitoring, support and data analysis that guides their management.
The Flyte Health Model deployed in Connecticut is also implemented successfully by more than a dozen other employers and health plan payers around the country.
For more information about Intellihealth and Flyte Medical, please visit www.intellihealth.co.
About IntellihealthIntellihealth is changing the perception of obesity and redefining how it is treated. We offer evidence-based medical obesity treatment that is three times more effective than lifestyle intervention alone. Our clinical services affiliate, FlyteTM Medical, partners with self-insured organizations, health plans and healthcare systems to provide cost-effective and scalable weight management services with experienced clinicians who are passionate about obesity medicine, including physicians, nurse practitioners and registered dietitians. Flyte Medical teams deliver comprehensive, highly individualized, compassionate obesity care via Intellihealth’s digital health platform, EvolveTM. Evolve is also available as a turnkey software-as-a-service solution that easily integrates into any practice and enables any provider to offer effective medical obesity treatment both via telehealth and in person. More about Intellihealth, Flyte Medical and Evolve may be found at www.intellihealth.co.
Intellihealth
Nicole Turgeon
[email protected]
(206) 295-2060
SOURCE Intellihealth
