Editor's Note: Omada updated its total to 30,000 pounds lost across programs.
Virtual chronic care management company Omada is partnering with the state of Alaska to prevent and manage diabetes and hypertension. With Omada, Alaskans have lost a total of 30,000 pounds, the company says.
Omada and the Alaska Department of Health established the partnership in 2019 when the department was looking to support more virtual health programs for its geographically dispersed population.
More than 4,000 Alaskans participated in its various state-sponsored virtual chronic disease management programs, Jessica Downes, a nurse consultant for Alaska's state department of health, told Fierce Healthcare.
“It really it all kind of began as, let's kind of do a trial. Let's see if Alaskans are genuinely interested in distance delivered chronic disease prevention services. At what rate? What would it look like? How can we do it?“ Downes said, describing the factors that the health department considered when beginning the program.
Alaska is the biggest state in the U.S. It is more than twice the size of Texas and bigger than Texas, California and Montana combined. Many Alaskans live in rural areas, some of which are not accessible by roads. Some are separated from the state’s urban core, Anchorage and Juneau, by a multi-hour flight.
Many small rural communities, especially those with 500 to 600 residents, do not have an in-person diabetes prevention program, Downes said. It’s also hard to keep providers staffed in rural locations.
As part of a broader effort to introduce virtual chronic disease management solutions for Alaskans, the state struck up a partnership with Omada to offer all people with an Alaska ZIP code a diabetes prevention program (DPP) for free.
After seeing success with the DPP program, the state department of health also rolled out Omada’s diabetes management and hypertension management programs to all residents for free.
Once Alaskan residents enroll with Omada, they are matched with a health coach who assesses their needs and puts them on a plan of care. The virtual DPP program lasts 12 months while the diabetes and hypertension management programs can be done for however long the patient needs them depending on their familiarity with their condition and the amount of education they need.
Alaskans receive cellular-connected devices like a weight scale or a blood pressure cuff that transmits readings to their provider. Enabling the devices through cellular, rather than WiFi or Bluetooth, makes them more accessible to rural residents, Omada President Wei-Li Shao said.
Weight loss is a focus across all three Omada programs because it is correlated with diabetes and hypertension. So far, Alaskans have lost 30,000 pounds through the three programs, Omada says.
“What we’re doing with Alaska represents our strategic focus and some of the best work we do,” Shao said.
To increase awareness of the virtual diabetes prevention program and the other programs the state has like tobacco cessation and dementia prevention, the state launched a campaign called “Fresh Start” in December 2022.
When the state department of health created the media campaign materials, Downes said it was important to them to feature Alaskans participating in the programs so Alaskans would feel represented.
“Alaskans kind of have a lot of pride in being Alaskan, and we know if the person in your commercial was really from Oklahoma … we're not interested in whatever you're selling, we know you're not from Alaska,” Downes said. “So it's really important to us to make sure that we represented ourselves in the media that we put out to recruit people into these programs.”
With the campaign, thousands more Alaskans joined the virtual chronic disease management programs.
The state health department worked with employers to ensure that every Alaskan who already received Omada as a benefit could access the program through their employer. Omada is contracted with hundreds of health plans and is available to 1 in 10 Americans.
Determining insurance benefits is also one of Omada’s core services, Shao said. The department of health was able to leverage Omada’s technology to help determine who already had coverage.
Omada also has signed up for some high-profile collaborations as it expands it services to more consumers. Back in January, online retail giant Amazon tapped tapped Omada Health as its first partner in its health conditions program, which aims to help customers find and enroll in virtual care benefits available to them through their employer or health plan at no extra cost. Omada was the first virtual diabetes prevention, diabetes and hypertension provider available in Amazon’s health conditions program.
As part of the Alaska program, the state pays for Alaskans who are uninsured or don’t otherwise have access to Omada’s services.
Downes said it’s been hard to find sustainable sources of funding for the program. The program was initially launched with state funding from the COVID-19 pandemic, but the funding is starting to run out, she said.
The state has also received grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but Downes said they want the program to have more reliable funding.
Medicare does not cover virtual diabetes prevention programs. Getting Medicare coverage has been one of Omada’s primary regulatory reform efforts for years, executives said.
Alaska Medicaid also does not cover virtual diabetes prevention.
“Any federal coverage of these programs would be assistance to our enrolled Alaskans,” Downes said.