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Monroe asthma care plan recognized

Daily Record (Rochester, NY), May 9, 2008

The Monroe Plan for Medical Care has been selected to receive the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2008 National Environmental Leadership Award in Asthma Management for its efforts to provide quality asthma care that includes environmental controls.

EPA presented the award at the 3rd annual Communities in Action for Asthma-Friendly Environments Na-tional Asthma Forum on May 1 in Washington, D.C.

The annual award recognizes comprehensive asthma-management programs for innovative and effective strategies that lead to improved patient health and quality of life. The Monroe Plan's program was one of three chosen and the only managed care organization.

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The Monroe Plan for Medical Care's Medicaid managed care model covers 5,633 children with asthma in Monroe County and 12 neighboring rural counties. Monroe Plan is Excellus BlueCross BlueShield's partner in managing its Medicaid managed care, Child Health Plus, and Family Health Plus programs in this region.

"With a high asthma burden among children in the area, the Monroe Plan saw trends in pediatric asthma and noticed high admission rates that disproportionately affected minorities," said Dr. Joseph A. Stankaitis, the plan's chief medical officer. "Early on Monroe Plan partnered with ViaHealth ... to shift asthma care away from emergency services and inpatient care and toward primary care, specialty care, and improved patient self-management."

The program now covers all plan members with moderate to severe pediatric asthma and includes provider and member education, Stankaitis said.

Home assessments are conducted by bilingual asthma outreach workers to identify and reduce environmental conditions that can trigger an asthma attack.

"As a result of these interventions, emergency room visits and inpatient admissions have significantly decreased and the severity level of Monroe Plan's pediatric population for asthma has been cut nearly in half," said Deb Peartree, the plan's director of Clinical Services.

Information about EPA's Asthma Program, is available at www.epa.gov/ asthma.

Monroe asthma care plan recognized

Daily Record (Rochester, NY), May 9, 2008

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