Ceresti Health Introduces Innovative Telehealth Caregiver Support Supplemental Benefit for Medicare Advantage Health Plans

CARLSBAD, Calif. – January 5, 2021 – Ceresti Health, a digital health company that specializes in virtual care for seniors with cognitive impairment, announced the introduction of Ceresti’s Caregiver Support Supplemental Benefit. This multi-tiered benefit is easy to implement and guaranteed to pay for itself via reduced claims. It is optimized for Medicare Advantage (MA) health plans seeking to proactively support their members’ brain health while also directly supporting caregivers and families of members with Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias, the condition that older Americans fear the most.

Members with dementia incur 25-30% of all MA hospitalizations, and healthcare costs that are 2-3x higher than members without the condition. “More than half of these hospitalizations are potentially preventable by more knowledgeable, prepared and confident caregivers,” said Shadi Battah, MD, intensivist and pulmonologist at the Alaska Hospitalist Group. “I routinely see patients who are admitted to the hospital for issues that could be detected by proactive family members and prevented in primary care settings. For patients living with dementia, the trauma of a hospitalization can be severe and result in irreversible declines in function and cognition.”

Ceresti’s 6-month Caregiver Support Program, the central element of this supplemental benefit, is offered to caregivers of members living with dementia who need additional support. According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Each year, more than 16 million Americans provide more than 17 billion hours of unpaid care for family and friends with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.” Most of these caregivers are untrained and unsupported. No matter how well intentioned, the lack of training and support diminishes the ability of family caregivers to provide the best care to loved ones. And many family caregivers, alone and unsupported, develop serious health conditions of their own. Multiple independent studies show that empowered family caregivers achieve better patient outcomes, including adherence to care plans, reduced use of health care services, and improved quality of care measures.

Caregivers that enroll in Ceresti’s Caregiver Support Program receive a dedicated tablet, or download an app, that enables access to a comprehensive, personalized program of education, content, support, and remote assessments. Caregivers are paired with a dedicated, remote coach for real-time support. Benefits to health plans include higher engagement, higher satisfaction, reduced healthcare costs, and real-time insights about the social determinants of health of their most vulnerable members.

“Teaching, empowering and supporting family caregivers is essential to improve the quality of care for persons living with dementia,” said Jackie Pinkowitz, board chair of the Dementia Action Alliance. “Ceresti’s telehealth benefit is particularly important during the COVID pandemic, a time when families have to be more self-sufficient in how they provide care for a loved one who frequently has multiple other chronic conditions.”

“Based on deployments with several leading health plans we have developed the confidence to guarantee net savings for Medicare Advantage plans that partner with Ceresti,” said Dirk Soenksen, co-founder and CEO of Ceresti. “We are excited to introduce this timely, cost-effective and innovative supplemental benefit to support brain health along a continuum of Member needs.”

About Ceresti

Ceresti is a digital health company that specializes in virtual care for seniors with cognitive impairment. Ceresti is first to market with a caregiver support program optimized for patients living with dementia, built on an integrated and scalable telehealth platform that is readily adapted to other cognitive impairment conditions. Our caregiver support programs improve family caregiver effectiveness and leverage predictive analytics to reduce hospitalizations for patients, and increase quality of life for caregivers and patients. We configure our education, support, remote assessment and proactive coaching programs as either a Medicare Advantage supplemental benefit or as specialized care management programs. Learn more at ceresti.com

Contact: Dirk Soenksen, dirk.soenksen@ceresti.com

Media Contact
Company Name: Ceresti Health
Contact Person: Dirk Soenksen
Email: Send Email
Phone: 7604530997
City: Carlsbad
State: CA
Country: United States
Website: https://www.ceresti.com/