Cigna Uses AI to Check if Patients Are Taking Their Medications
Cigna
Uses AI to Check if Patients Are Taking Their Medications
Health insurer is expanding an AI-based system it
acquired as part of the Express Scripts deal
By Agam
Shah Dec. 12, 2019 1:19 pm ET
Cigna Corp. plans
to expand a system that uses artificial intelligence to identify gaps in
treatment of chronic diseases, such as patients skipping their medications, and
deliver personalized recommendations for specific patients.
The product, called Health Connect 360, integrates data from a
combination of sources and analytical tools, some developed at Cigna and others
brought in as part of its $54 billion acquisition of pharmacy-benefit manager
Express Scripts Holding Co., completed late last year. Express Scripts,
which began developing the service two years ago, rolled out portions of it to
some customers this year.
The complete system will be available
next month to all customers of Express Scripts and Cigna that offer health
benefits to employees, the company said.
Health Connect 360 was developed for treatment of chronic
diseases, including diabetes and heart disease, as well as for pain management.
The system aggregates medical, pharmacy, lab and biometric data—such as
information from glucometers, which measure blood-sugar levels—into a dashboard
that is accessible through an online interface. The dashboard will be visible
to the service’s customers and to Express Scripts case managers and nurses with
access rights. The system can also feed information to electronic-medical
record systems for physicians.
More health-care organizations are looking to artificial
intelligence to spot diseases, prioritize cases and improve patient
outcomes—results that also have the effect of lowering overall costs for the
providers.
AI systems’ ability to learn from an array of patient histories,
medical tests and diagnostic tests makes them ideal tools for care. However,
getting access to health data required for better outcomes can be a bottleneck.
Cigna is already using AI to predict whether patients might abuse or
overdose on prescription opioids. Another Cigna tool, One Guide, provides
personalized help to health-insurance holders on their benefit plans,
appointments and health coaching.
The new Health Connect 360 system combines algorithms that
analyze data such as clinical and pharmacy information with predictive models
to generate recommendations and ways to best engage a patient, whether through
an app or in person.
For example, collected data from pharmacy claims or high blood
glucose level readings from connected glucometers could trigger an alert in
Health Connect 360 that a diabetic patient needs help to stay on track with
medications.
After the system was tested and partially deployed this year,
early results showed success in helping diabetic patients, the company said.
Managing chronic conditions is much less expensive than engaging
in some kind of corrective procedure, said Matthew Josefowicz, chief executive
of research and advisory firm Novarica Inc.
“Across the health-care industry, as with every industry, the
incredible growth in data availability and ability to communicate enables new
kinds of interventions that were just too cost-prohibitive to even consider
before,” Mr. Josefowicz said.
To keep the focus on its core health business, Cigna recently
has been seeking a buyer for a unit that sells life, accident and
disability-income insurance to employers for their workers, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
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