With Recruitment Phase Nearing End, Results Expected Next Year
More than two years into its partnership with Wellpoint, Senscio Systems is nearing the end of the recruitment phase of a clinical trial study that seeks to prove the benefits of its Ibis Health program, including its ability to keep members out of the hospital and healthier at home.
Over 600 participants have been enrolled in the study since it first launched last year, accounting for over 55,000 cumulative days on Ibis and more than 41,000 interactions with the Ibis Health nurse practitioner-led care team. So far, participants have demonstrated an 80 percent adherence rate to their care plans while on the program.
Once the recruitment phase ends this June 30, investigators will continue to follow participants for the next year to determine whether Ibis Health can significantly move the needle in three specific areas: a reduction in all-cause hospital admissions over a period of 18 months; an increase in participants’ confidence in their own self-management; and an effective adherence rate of 80 percent or greater to taking medications prescribed for chronic conditions.
“Mass Retirees has played a central role in fostering the partnership between Senscio and Wellpoint because we believe strongly in the value of Ibis Health to our members,” reports CEO Shawn Duhamel. “And, we expect that the study’s results will bear that out.”
Jointly led by Dr. Soeren Mattke, MD, DSc, Research Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Improving Chronic Illness Care at the University of Southern California, and Dr. Michael Aciero, PhD, Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of New England, the study first received IRB approval in December 2023 and began enrolling patients in January 2024.
Ed Note: While the clinical trial study involves only Wellpoint beneficiaries, Ibis Health is available to all Massachusetts retirees with Medicare Part B coverage who qualify. To learn more about the program, log onto www.ibishealth.org/voice
Hearing Firsthand from a Member: Invaluable Testimonial
Ibis Is There When She Needs Them
When Mass Retirees member Debra first heard about Ibis Health through a Mass Retirees Town Hall, she thought it sounded like a wonderful program — for other retirees. Like many people in their 60s, Debra has a few health issues, but she considers herself to still be relatively healthy.
“I didn’t think it was for me,” Debra said. “I’m still working part-time, and I’m quite social.”
Until she thought about the experience of caring for her mother, who lived with Debra during the final years of her life. Debra, who lives in western Massachusetts and retired from a career in the UMass system, began to realize it could be helpful to develop some resources to help her better navigate the healthcare system before she gets to the point of being really sick. “I had my mother here for four years, and I wish I had something like Ibis for her care. Because I didn’t know how to find a walker. I didn’t know how to get her healthcare without having to, in the end, physically carry her to the doctors.”
Debra decided to give Ibis Health a try. She told an Ibis Health enrollment specialist that she just wanted to get some guidance. “I know that my conditions aren’t going to completely reverse themselves and get 100 percent better,” she said.
More than a year later, Debra believes she is getting that guidance and more. She uses the Ibis Health patient portal (see April Voice) to help keep track of her medications, blood pressure and other vitals. And she looks forward to her conversations with the program’s clinical care team, who have helped her better understand her health conditions and the medications she takes to manage them.
“When I’ve met with the [Ibis Health] nurse practitioner, it is a great relief to be able to have the time that I don’t get from my primary [care physician] or my cardiologist,” Debra said. Ibis Health’s team is “able to address things that my doctors don’t have enough time to get into the nitty-gritty.”
And the best part, according to Debra? Because of Ibis Health’s ongoing partnership with Wellpoint, Debra’s health insurance provider, she doesn’t pay anything out-of-pocket for the program. Debra says she is trying to convince friends and neighbors to join Ibis Health. “Overall I think it’s a great program, and the people that have touched me are so caring and so professional at the same time,” Debra said. “Ibis is there when I need them. They understand that I really don’t need a lot from them right now, but that I want to stay involved so that as things change in my life, they are there.”
