Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is hoping to better control his state's diabetes epidemic with a new telehealth initiative, launching a public-private partnership to treat at-risk patients in underserved areas.
Bryant's administration has brought together the University of Mississippi Medical Center, GE Healthcare, Intel and C Spire Wireless to create the Diabetes Telehealth Network, a remote care management pilot that they've billed as the first of its kind.
Mississippi has the highest rate of adult diabetes in the country -- more than 11 percent compared to the national rate of 8.3 percent -- with annual diabetes-related medical expenses of $2.74 billion, according to the American Diabetes Association. Mostly rural and working class, Mississippi is also ranked as the unhealthiest state in the country by the UnitedHealth Foundation, suffering from high instances of obesity, smoking and inactivity.
All of which have Bryant, a Republican, viewing the pilot as "a new lifeline for health and disease management."
A $1.6 million project, with costs split between the partners, the network will start recruiting patients this spring and specifically focus on the Mississippi Delta, a region in the northwest part of the state between the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers where more than 12 percent of adults have diabetes.
Using tablets connected to the internet, patients will be able to share data on blood pressure, glucose levels and weight, then talk via phone or video chat with University of Mississippi Medical Center clinicians in Jackson through the Intel-GE platform.
Intel-GE and leaders at the medical center describe the approach as "just-in-time" education that can help diabetics avoid complications and also sustain lifestyle changes.
"Until now, this type of coordinated care that engages the patient in their home setting was simply not an option," said Kristi Henderson, telehealth director at UMMC, which offers telehealth services in cardiology, dermatology, pediatrics and stroke care in partnership with smaller clinics and hospitals. North Sunflower County Hospital, serving patients in the Mississippi Delta, will be collaborating on the diabetes telehealth network pilot.
"We know that diabetes is one of the foremost chronic diseases in Mississippi," said Henderson, an acute care nurse practitioner who also serves as chief advanced practice officer at UMMC, the state's only academic medical center.
The 18-month telehealth network pilot "will serve as a proof-of-concept as we look to expand this model geographically and to other diseases," Henderson said in a media release.
The state initiative comes as the federal government is still working out ways to pay for more telehealth. In 2014's Medicare physician fee schedule, CMS is expanding telehealth reimbursement for Medicare basically to "the fringes of metropolitan areas," as the American Telehealth Association put it, but not as far as some would hope.
It still leaves out some regions like much of the Mississippi Delta, at least for Medicare. Mississippi actually requires telehealth reimbursement from Medicaid and private payers, one of sixteen states, along with Washington D.C.
Mississippi's new pilot should help bring more momentum to telehealth in the state and help solve problems of Internet infrastructure and computer access -- in this case bringing mobile tablets, an option more affordable than laptops would have been even just a few years ago.