Cost Savings and Reduced Health Care Utilization Associated with Participation in a Digital Diabetes Prevention Program in an Adult Workforce Population

Abstract

Background: Though in-person delivery of the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) has demonstrated medical cost savings, the economic impact of digital programs is not as well understood. Objective: This study examines the impact of a digital DPP program on reducing all-cause health care costs and utilization among 2027 adult participants at 12 months. Methods: A longitudinal, observational analysis of health care claims data was conducted on a workforce population who participated in a digital diabetes prevention program. Differences in utilization and costs from the year prior to program delivery through 1 year after enrollment were calculated using medical claims data for digital DPP participants compared to a propensity matched cohort in a differences-in-differences model. Results: At 1 year, the digital DPP population had a reduction in all-cause health care spend of US$1169 per participant relative to the comparison group (P = 0.01), with US$699 of that savings coming from reduced inpatient spend (P = 0.001). Cost savings were driven by fewer hospital admissions and shorter length of stay (P < 0.001). No other significant results in cost differences were detected. There was a trend toward savings extending into the second year, but the savings did not reach statistical significance. Conclusions: These results demonstrated significant short-term health care cost savings at 1 year associated with digital DPP program delivery.

Digital Therapeutics in Diabetes

“…Diabetes has been reported to result in lost labor productivity due to absenteeism and presenteeism, and loss of laborers from the workforce due to hospitalizations and complications of DM. [ 5 ] In the Indian context, this leads to indirect costs of diabetes care in addition to the direct costs of frequent hospital visits. [ 11 ] There is a need for affordable and accessible solutions for employees to better manage DM, while making it feasible for employers to invest in such interventions.…”

An Economic Impact Model for Estimating the Value to Health Systems of a Digital Intervention for Diabetes Primary Care: Development and Usefulness Study

“…A number of these digital health interventions claim to reduce the system- and individual-level costs of diabetes. For example, in one longitudinal claims-based study of Omada Diabetes Prevention Program, participants incurred reduced health care costs at 1 year after enrollment, including reduced inpatient costs [ 18 ]. Evidence suggests that digital health interventions may be an effective tool to augment clinical-based diabetes care, but there remain gaps in the evidence base, particularly around the economic impact [ 19 , 20 ] and a relative dearth of interventions focused on supporting traditional clinical pathways such as primary care.…”

Development and testing of a digital health acceptability model to explain the intention to use a digital diabetes prevention programme

“…Digital DPPs can potentially overcome these barriers, delivering content (e.g., exercise and diet tracking, goal setting) through computers or smartphones whilst facilitating remote communication with a health coach and other participants via video calls and online social forums (Grock, Ku, Kim, & Moin, 2017; Van Rhoon, Byrne, Morrissey, Murphy, & McSharry, 2020). Digital DPPs have achieved results comparable to their in‐person counterparts, and are potentially more cost‐effective (Bian et al., 2017; Castro Sweet, Jasik, Diebold, DuPuis, & Jendretzke, 2020). This, when combined with the burgeoning need for digital health solutions highlighted during the Covid‐19 pandemic (Robbins et al., 2020), suggests that the implementation of a digitally delivered DPP could be an important diabetes prevention solution for Ireland and other countries that are yet to adopt such a programme.…”