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Boost Workforce Productivity, Reduce Medical Costs: Integrate Echosens' FibroScan Into MetaPhy's Chronic Care Liver Disease Management Program
[September 15, 2020]

Boost Workforce Productivity, Reduce Medical Costs: Integrate Echosens' FibroScan Into MetaPhy's Chronic Care Liver Disease Management Program


Echosens, a high-technology company offering the FibroScan family of products, today announces the release of its white paper "Comprehensive Chronic Care Disease Management of Liver Disease Improves Member Outcomes, Reduces Costs for Employer-Sponsored Benefits Plans and Healthcare Payers," authored by Scott Howell, D.O., MPH & TM, CPE, advisor to Echosens. Articulating the effective collaboration between Echosens and MetaPhy Health, providers of chronic care disease management (CCDM) services for gastroenterology practices, the document explains how CCDM programs that leverage FibroScan take the most effective approach for treating patients with comorbidities, such as Type 2 diabetes and obesity-both of which have been linked to liver disease.

"For self-insured employers and plan sponsors, the benefits of managing chronic disease are to not only improve health and reduce medical costs, but also to create a more productive workforce and healthier patient population," says Howell. "As companies struggle to adjust to the new normal and find optimized ways to manage population health, they are discovering that CCDM programs that integrate FibroScan in the diagnosis and ongoing management of adults with chronic liver disease are effectively halting disease progression."



Benefits payers now confront the alarming statistics about the prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), the leading causes of liver disease. NAFLD is prevalent in 40-80% of people who have Type 2 diabetes and in 30-90% of people who are obese. Being overweight or obese is responsible for about 85% of fatty liver disease. To identify and manage these patients, new cost-effective technological approaches are needed in point of care.

"FibroScan is a non-invasive technology that quickly provides a quantitative assessment of liver stiffness and liver fat at the point of care to make the detection of liver disease and long-term care for individuals with NALFD and NASH more effective," says Howell. "It is innovative technology that can provide consistent results and is covered by CMS and most commercial insurance plans for diagnosing and monitoring chronic liver disease."


Chris Oubre, president and chief operating officer, MetaPhy, states, "The integration of FibroScan into MetaPhy Health's 'high touch' CCDM program can help to effectively address the growing liver disease epidemic. With the introduction of new treatment options, including drugs that will soon be available, a targeted CCDM program can integrate non-invasive, point of care liver examinations to leverage the launch of these drugs in a way that improves outcomes and lowers costs for employers and payers."

He points to one study, which showed that per-beneficiary-per-month (PBPM) cost for patients who received CCM (News - Alert) services was less than the costs for comparable non-CCM beneficiaries after just 12 months. PBPM expenditures for CCM beneficiaries decreased by $74 in the 18-month follow-up period.

About Echosens

Echosens, the developer of FibroScan®, is an innovative high-technology company offering a full range of products and services supporting physicians in their assessment and management of patients with chronic liver diseases. FibroScan is supported by over 2,500 peer-reviewed publications and examinations are covered by Medicare, Medicaid and many insurance plans. For more information, please visit http://www.echosens.us and follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) (@echosensNA).


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