At-home screenings help close potential care gaps in 2024
This summer and fall, we’ll send thousands of home test kits to members who are managing diabetes or at risk for chronic kidney disease or colorectal cancer. Engaging members in preventive care at home is the first step toward knowing what further testing or treatment may be needed.
What the program looks like
In August, we’ll begin sending at-home test kits to members. The kits contain all the supplies members need and clear instructions on how to complete the tests. Members will receive automated follow-up phone calls to encourage them to complete their at-home testing. The program will run through December. Test results will be shared with members’ doctors to coordinate any additional testing or treatment that may be needed.
To give you a sense of the scale of our annual at-home test kit initiative, here’s what we plan to send and when it will arrive in members’ homes:
- About 49,000 FOBT kits — August.
- About 700 EGFR kits — September.
- About 12,000 Combined urine albumin and eGFR kits — September.
- About 14,000 Hemoglobin A1c test kits — November.
- About 28,000 Microalbumin kits — November.
Helping members close care gaps
Consistent screenings — whether done at home or in a provider’s office — help detect risky abnormalities before larger problems like kidney disease and colorectal cancer emerge. Consider talking to your patients about the benefits of at-home test kits or schedule in-office testing for patients you know are overdue for these screenings. For some primary care providers, closing these care gaps can result in more robust quality incentive payments.
Contact the GHP quality and assurance team at 888-342-8751 or your GHP provider account manager at 800-876-5357 if you have questions about our at-home screening initiatives.
Who is ordering tests for my patients?
As part of the administration of our at-home test kit initiative, you may see in a patients’ record that one or more of these tests are ordered by a physician you don’t recognize. For the program to work, all test kits must be ordered by a physician.
We’ve teamed up with our Geisinger clinical pathology partners and Dr. Michelle Pramick to serve as the ordering physician for administrative purposes only. You may see Dr. Pramick’s name on patient records or other reporting as the ordering provider.