AllWays Insider

In a recent article about our new diabetes prevention program, Path to Lifestyle Change, Employee Benefit News emphasizes the need for addressing pre-diabetes.  "With more than one in three American adults being pre-diabetic, every $1 out of $7 of healthcare spend is attributable to diabetes-related treatment and complications, according to research from The American Diabetes Association."

UPDATE: On November 27, 2019, Governor Baker signed legislation titled “An Act Modernizing Tobacco Control.” This legislation is not designed to be a total ban of all products but will only allow the sale of flavored vaping products “to licensed smoking bars where they may only be smoked on-site." This includes menthol flavors and smokeless tobacco. The law will also add a 75% excise tax on all e-cigarette products in an attempt to make them less affordable for young people. In light of this new legislation, Governor Baker decided that the temporary ban will end on December 11, 2019. This new legislation is set to begin June 1, 2020.

For more than 40 years the American Cancer Society has reserved the third Thursday in November to champion the Great American Smokeout. The challenge to smokers is to commit to a 24 hour smoke free period hoping that will be the first step toward living a smoke free life. It also signals an opportunity for families, friends, health care entities and community groups to encourage and support those smokers to reach for a goal of improving health.

Quality assurance and HEDIS^®

AllWays Health Partners’ behavioral health partner Optum provides a quality assurance (QA) toolkit for primary care providers (PCPs). This toolkit was designed to explain the substance use disorders and depression measures of HEDIS® to PCPs and give recommendations for meeting these measures. HEDIS stands for Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set, describing a set of performance measures for both behavioral and physical health conditions. The intent is for purchasers and consumers to use HEDIS to compare and evaluate health plans easily.  Not only that, HEDIS sets a standard for the quality of care that patients should be receiving. The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) uses HEDIS to evaluate PCPs, health plans, and Managed Behavioral Healthcare Organizations.

Have any of your patients recently received a text message AllWays Health Partners? Maybe they’ve gotten a message about a well child visit or about diabetes care. These messages are part of our initiatives to engage patients and make it easy for them to be proactive about their own care.