Scripps Wired for Health Monitoring Study

The study will evaluate the impact of a "Wireless Monitoring" intervention for chronically ill individuals with diabetes, hypertension, and arrhythmias. This project utilizes the concept of 'hot-spotting' in that investigators will aim to target individuals with the highest health care needs, which investigators have defined to be patients with these diagnoses who showed the highest health care utilization rates over the previous 12-month period based on reimbursement data from a large health care third party administrator. Investigators aim to determine if wireless monitoring can reduce health care service utilization and thus health care costs for the small number of patients who spend the greatest number of health care dollars, thereby cutting the overall amount of health care spending dramatically. Furthermore, investigators will be assessing whether or not access to health measurement data and the possibility of receiving feedback from a study staff member will increase the compliance of patients to their medication regimen, recommended diet and exercise. It is anticipated that armed with their own health data, these patients will be less likely to need acute care visits Study participants will be employees of Scripps Health or dependents of employees covered with Scripps insurance, administered by third-party administrator, Health Comp. In addition, patients will be currently enrolled or willing to enroll in Health Comp's Disease Management program. Investigators predict that in addition to participation in the program, wireless monitoring will be associated with decreased inpatient health service utilization (hospital admissions, days of hospitalization) and decreased outpatient health service utilization (emergency department visits, need-based primary care clinic visits, and need-based specialty clinic visits). Investigators predict that these decreases will translate into significant reductions in health care costs for the treatment group relative to a control group and relative to pre-monitoring utilization rates.