Parachute Health makes ordering diabetes supplies easy and fast
November is National Diabetes Awareness Month, but people with diabetes have to monitor their disease year-round. Parachute Health’s seamless ordering workflow helps suppliers and clinicians communicate at every step, meaning faster order fulfillment for suppliers and less time lost by clinicians, so that they can focus on what matters most: treating the patients in their care.
According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), roughly 34 million people in the United States have some form of diabetes — more than one in every 10 people. And diabetes costs the nation billions annually, too: the American Diabetes Association reported that in 2017, direct medical care for diabetes cost $237 billion, with another $90 billion in lost productivity.
Type 1 diabetes is caused when the pancreas produces low or no insulin, while type 2 is caused by a combination of low insulin and the body’s inability to use insulin effectively. Since insulin regulates the movement of glucose from the bloodstream into the cells, difficulties with insulin production and processing mean the body cannot control the amount of sugar in the bloodstream, with dangerous and potentially deadly consequences.
“It was very easy to put in the order, seek help via chat… and receive updates. I could not believe how fast the supplies were received by the patient.”
Many diabetics are dependent on insulin, and careful monitoring of blood sugar levels is essential for all people with diabetes. DME supplies such as blood sugar meters and testing strips, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices, and insulin pumps are essential to their survival. When these devices arrive late, never arrive at all, or a patient runs out of supplies, life-threatening emergencies and preventable, costly ER visits often occur.
Diabetes care ordering is complicated by the fact that continuous-wear devices like CGMs and insulin pumps from different makers each have their own complex sets of instructions for use and maintenance, with detailed patient communication required to complete each order. There’s also a lot of variation in benefit use, documentation requirements, and coding, with devices coming from different categories, including DME supplies benefits, pharmacy benefits, and others.
In addition to the longstanding challenges of diabetes care ordering, the recent Medicare rule change for CGM coverage has meant more options for more patients, and more steps for providers.
The Parachute Platform facilitates real-time collaboration and transparency between clinicians and suppliers at every step of the DME supplies ordering process. The result? Lower costs for patients and dramatically reduced administrative burden for clinicians and suppliers, ensuring the right orders get to patients’ doors — with order tracking and confirmation to let everyone know that patients received the essential items they need on time.
How big is the difference? One major supplier recently transitioned onto the Parachute Platform and was able to reduce order turnaround time from an average of 30 days to an average of 3 days: a 10x improvement in order turnaround! With numbers like these, you can see why our platform technology is "best in class".
Besides the ease of ordering, the expansive Parachute Health Network allows providers to choose the right suppliers for their patients and keep on top of evolving documentation burdens.
Speaking about the clinician ordering experience for diabetes, Khyati Patel, Ambulatory Care Pharmacist at Kenosha, Wisconsin’s Aurora Medical Center, remarked, “It was very easy to put in the order, seek help via chat… and receive updates. I could not believe how fast the supplies were received by the patient.”
And as more clinicians and suppliers join the Parachute Platform, the success stories keep rolling in.
Diabetes Awareness Month will be over in a couple of weeks, but the needs of people with diabetes are ongoing. At Parachute Health, our goal is to help ease the burden of living with diabetes by supporting the clinicians and suppliers who connect patients to diabetes care supplies, one success story at a time.
Healthcare providers: Try delightfully simple DME ordering today.
Suppliers: See what you can do with the power of the Parachute Platform.
