Improved outcomes for 2006 has been announced by a major provider of health and productivity management solutions,Nationwide Better HealthSM. This announcement concerned the results for its maternity management program, and it confirmed the company’s hard work to maintain mothers who are about to give birth, in good health during and after their pregnancy, the result being healthier results for their employers.
The Nationwide Better Health maternity management program which is URAC-accredited, is called FutureFootsteps. The program reported an on average savings of $52,060 for each neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) stay in 2006. These results are practically triple the savings reported for 2005. In total, this innovative program generated employer savings totaling $8.7 million for 2006 with rspt to NICU admissions. Its 2006 pre-term birth rate was kept down to 10.3 percent, as compared with that of the nation being on average, 12.5 percent. More information about health insurance quotes is available here.
Dr. Chris Wilhide, who directs Nationwide Better Health's clinical program development and research, has said that her company routinely goes beyond the norm in order to enroll all moms, rather than just reaching out to those who have been diagnosed as having high-risk pregnancies. She says that this stands as an exception in the marketplace. And stands by her company's determination to include every mother as a part of their company's program so as to ensure healthy pregnancies, a healthy delivery and outstanding postpartum care.
According to Wilhide, the ground-breaking maternity management method begins as early as the first trimester during which time pregnant employees are enrolled in the program through the means of various detection methods which include RiskScreen, a proprietary program developed for Nationwide Better Health. This system filters through a mass of medical and pharmaceutical claims in order to properly identify expectant moms. They also receive information through pre-certification by physicians, from information regarding hospital prenatal notifications, various health risk assessment programs as well as information provided by the employer’s human resources team. Inclusion can also be through self-referral.
Dr. Wilhide says that they are using early enrollment in order to better the help women to enjoy a healthy, full-term delivery. This has only added to the positive results being experienced by the company. For example, Dr. Wilhide explains that during the year of 2006, only a rather small presenting of 6.6 percent of the pregnancies being supervised and falling under the care of the program resulted in low/very low birth weights. This can be compared with a much higher rate for the nation as a whole of an average of 8.1 percent.