Driving Better Health Through Coordinated Wellness Efforts

For most Plans there has been relatively low participation in Wellness programs as they have been organized in recent years, and the PCABP is no exception. To increase member participation and compliance with OPM´s requirement, we must rethink our Wellness approach to engage our network providers, specially our Primary Care Physicians (PCPs), who should be the ones leading the Wellness effort.

Focus on the PCPs

We must update PCP-patient assignments and provide the PCPs with the updated lists of their assigned patients. Then, we must remind the PCP of the specific Wellness measures we need them to evaluate: yearly health risk assessments, yearly BMI, glucose screening, tobacco cessation, blood pressure monitoring, vaccinations, etc. We can then evaluate PCPs in a way similar to how the Plan is evaluated through the HEDIS reports.

And this evaluation can be used to offer feedback to the PCPs and to compare clinical practice. Physicians who´s practice are especially different to other PCPs or physicians that do not involve their patients in the Wellness initiatives must be retrained; while physicians who are more proactive could receive incentives and should receive Plan recognition for exceptional practice.

Focus on the Members

We will organize health fairs and invite patients to participate (twice a year in Panama City and once a year in Colon City). Providers (medical, therapists, hospitals, and pharmacies) will be invited to promote their products and services. At these health fairs, we will offer a number of Wellness services: Health risk assessments, BMI calculation, vaccinations, podiatric evaluation, skin cancer screening, bone density evaluation, etc.

We can then keep records of all the members that have received these services and this will also serve to update their contact information in our data base. With an updated data base, we can then stay in contact with them via phone calls or email to continue motivating them and in so doing, increase adherence and wellness sustainment. In addition to large health fairs, we will also organize small groups for walking, aqua-aerobics, yoga, healthy cooking classes, etc. This will also serve to motivate patients to continue taking care of their health.

Two-prong approach

We propose a two-prong approach that strengthens our Wellness strategy by engaging both providers and members. First, we will empower Primary Care Physicians with the tools, data, and accountability needed to guide preventive care and improve clinical outcomes. At the same time, we will actively involve our members through health fairs, screenings, education, and ongoing support to encourage participation, healthier behaviors, and sustained wellness engagement.