Chronic Disease Management: A Workable Solution

Can plan sponsors realistically play a role in chronic disease management or is this an area best left to health professionals and the public health care system? Participants at the eighth annual Pharmacy Benefits Roundtable suggest that employers not only have a role, they have a responsibility to help the growing number of employees with chronic conditions or diseases.

“We live in a fantasy world if we think the delivery of health care is going to stay the way it is,” says Chris Camp, chair of the Halifax Professional Firefighters Benefits Trust in Nova Scotia. “So much of the costs of chronic disease connect directly to lost time and long-term disability. We have to start managing our benefits plans better and help plan members stay in the health condition they need to be in so they don’t increase our long-term costs.”