L.A. Care Health Plan, the nation’s largest public health plan with more than one million members, established the comprehensive disease management program LA Cares About Asthma® in 2003. Asthma was chosen as a disease management focus because of the large number of our members living with the chronic disease, and the success of similar programs in helping patients improve their health status over its course.
Winning the 2012 National Environmental Leadership Award in Asthma Management has validated the strength not only of LA Cares About Asthma®, but also of our community collaborative approach. LA Cares About Asthma® is designed to improve member self-management through education, empowerment, monitoring and member input and communication. On a monthly basis, asthma members are identified and provided with a variety of educational materials and tools to help them take control and manage their own disease. To be inclusive of all members, we ensure that linguistically and culturally appropriate materials are available for everyone.
L.A. Care puts its members first, and this program is the perfect example of that. We conducted a survey to understand the impact that this program is having and we and learned that more than 95 percent of our members find the program materials helpful, easy to understand and report having learned from them.
One mother told an L.A. Care nurse that her child’s asthma and allergies are now so well controlled that medication hasn’t been necessary for five months and she no longer needs to worry about multiple trips to the emergency room. This kind of success is what it’s all about.
We realize how much we are not only positively impacting the health of our members with asthma, but the broader community, as well. The award has also allowed L.A. Care to provide mentorship and guidance to other states and programs working to improve asthma patients’ health and it has given us the opportunity to educate our health promoters about disease management.
As the health care industry continues to transform in the coming years, L.A. Care looks forward to leading efforts with organizations like the EPA and other state programs to make this program’s success a reality for all Americans who suffer from this debilitating disease.
Howard A. Kahn
CEO
L.A. Care Health Plan