How better patient care drives employer outcomes

We’ve discussed why specialty treatments are so expensive and why it is so important to change the way these treatments are billed and paid for. It’s just as important to employers that patients have access to the best care possible.

Let’s examine why, where, and how creating a better experience for employees/patients enables and drives desirable outcomes for employers.

Helping patients navigate difficulty

Until recently, patients have experienced a variety of challenges in receiving infusion therapy. Patients may spend hours traveling to a physician’s office and undergoing lengthy procedures that leave them exhausted, particularly when they don’t live near a hospital that provides infusion therapy. They also are often on their own to navigate this exceedingly complex space, creating both mental and physical fatigue.

These challenges may impact a patient’s ability to complete their treatment and adhere to their care plan, which has both financial and physical consequences. Additionally, an employee who is spending time and energy on complex infusion treatments may have less time or focus on work responsibilities.

That’s why it’s so important to care for patients holistically. Achieving clinical and financial outcomes can’t be considered in isolation and separate from the patient experience. Rather, we need to support patients as they engage in some of the most trying circumstances of their lives, which benefits both them and their employers.

Patients will always go with the better experience

Patients often prefer care experiences that fit best into their lifestyles and align to their needs. This is largely what drives infusion therapy patients to prefer solutions and care experiences that enable:

1. Convenient care: Patients receive infusion therapy in the comfort of their homes or at nearby infusion centers, eliminating long hospital visits, unnecessary travel, and hours spent away from work and family. Treatment fits into their lives instead of disrupting them.
2. Personalized support every step of the way: Patients are looking for help, not just with their actual treatment, but navigating the healthcare landscape. Solutions that enable this level of support are preferred.
3. More free time: Flexible appointment options, including evenings and weekends when available, help patients receive treatment on their schedule, while at-home care can reduce time-consuming travel.

Positive patient experiences produce employer outcomes

When patients are satisfied, they are more likely to complete their treatments, manage their conditions, and lead healthier, more productive lives. Through better care adherence,  employers can see:

●       Potential claims savings through improved condition management

●       Improved absenteeism and productivity

●       Higher benefits engagement and satisfaction

●       Fewer questions directed to HR and benefits teams

●      Employees spending less time coordinating healthcare during the workday

Supporting patients end-to-end

While many patients require a clinical setting, there are also those who can receive their treatment from the comfort of their homes or nearby clinics and ambulatory infusion centers. Leap enables care in these spaces, which creates a better, more affordable experience  for patients.

Leap also provides dedicated, personalized support through Care Guides, who are licensed nurses and/or pharmacists who help patients navigate their full infusion journey. This includes:

●       Prior authorization and prescriber coordination

●       Pharmacy logistics

●       Appointment scheduling

●       Post-infusion follow-up

The Care Guide is the patient’s partner in care, supporting them at every step. This level of support gets results. In fact, more than 45% of total member engagement is driven by personalized Care Guide interactions.

Combining Leap Care Guides with the ability to treat patients from a variety of convenient locations results in patients saving an average of approximately three hours per treatment. Those hours come from not having to chase down authorizations, coordinate between providers, or sit in waiting rooms. Ultimately, this means they spend less time navigating healthcare and more time focused on their health, their families, and their work.

This is validated by Leap’s 98% patient satisfaction and 92 Net Promoter Score (NPS). These scores are among the highest in healthcare across the board.

Aligned incentives drive deeper engagement

When incentives are aligned between the patient, the provider, and the health plan, everybody benefits. This is especially true in the provider-administered specialty drug space, which is beset by a lack of transparency and unclear “buy and bill” pricing methodologies. In addition to bypassing this practice via direct manufacturer partnerships, Leap also employs a utilization-based fee structure with health plans that helps ensure incentives are aligned. This means that Leap is only paid when care is successfully delivered, as opposed to PEPM/PMPM fee structures popularized by many health solutions. This also benefits the health plan because they’re only paying when the benefit is actually used.

In this sense, the financial incentive and the care quality incentive point in the same direction. The better the patient experience means the patient is more likely to engage, which then translates into payment and confidence on the health plan side that their money is well spent. Because when patients are engaged and completing their treatments, the employer benefits as well.

The potential financial benefits are also felt by the patient. When members receive eligible infusion therapy through Leap, they often have reduced or no out-of-pocket costs depending on the specific details of their medical plan. That means fewer financial surprises and greater peace of mind while receiving high-quality care.

Leap in action: A case study

Dave, a father and husband living in the Pacific Northwest, was diagnosed with gout and prescribed infusion therapy every two weeks. However, Dave’s only treatment option required driving more than four hours round trip,, which strained his work schedule, family time, and ability to stay consistent with treatment.

With Leap, a Care Guide partnered with Dave, his prescribing physician, and the employer’s third-party administrator to coordinate in-home infusion care. Within one week, a licensed infusion nurse was assigned and ongoing infusions were scheduled. This allowed Dave to get the care he needed at his convenience and from the comfort of his home, which helped him show up as his best self for work and family.

This change in Dave’s treatment also drove measurable savings for his employer via the direct partnerships and transparent pricing that comes with Leap. By transitioning infusion therapy from the hospital to Dave’s home, Leap eliminated buy-and-bill markups for Dave’s employer and generated $711,000 in claims-validated annual savings.

These results are repeated time and again with patient after patient. Take Barb, for example, whose work with a Care Guide to help manage the logistics of her Leap treatment and support resulted in $967,000 in claims-validated annual savings for her employer. Or Annie, whose in-home treatment with Leap helped her stick to her care plan, saving $158,000 in annual claims costs. These are not outliers. They are the norm when patients are treated with the dignity and care they deserve.

Next steps

To learn more about how Leap can support your employees and help drive savings for your business, email us at info@leaphealth.com for an impact analysis.