Comptroller Sean Scanlon Announces Continued Partnership With Intellihealth
Flyte pilot produces promising weight management health outcomes and cost savings for state plan
(HARTFORD, CT) – Comptroller Sean Scanlon today announced the Office of the State Comptroller’s intention to permanently contract with Intellihealth to offer the Flyte weight management program to members of the state employee health plan (“Plan”).
The decision comes after a pilot program that began July 1, 2023, in which Flyte has delivered virtual obesity care to State of Connecticut employees and their dependents. Thus far, pilot data from patients enrolled in the program for six months has shown, on average, weight decrease by 8.5%, BMI decrease by 8.6%, and blood pressure decrease by 11.7%, in addition to other promising indicators.
The new three-year contract will also expand the Flyte Health Model to include additional clinicians with obesity medicine expertise at brick-and-mortar locations in Connecticut. The State has also expanded coverage for retirees; eligible individuals in the Aetna Medicare Advantage (MA) program can participate in Flyte, and their treatment will be covered by the State’s MA Prescription Drug plan.
“When I took office, the state employee health plan was seeing an unsustainable 50-percent year-over-year increase in spending on GLP-1 weight loss drugs,” said Comptroller Scanlon. “Rather than simply accept those rising costs or cutting off our members’ access to these drugs like other states have done, we embarked on a third path with Intellihealth, and it has worked. We recognize the potential of these medications to save the plan money in the long term, by decreasing the incidence of costly weight-related conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, but we needed to ensure the medications were being prescribed in a way that would produce the best outcomes for our members. Flyte has delivered compelling results, and we’re excited to be able to continue to provide cost-effective and clinically appropriate access to these life-changing medications.”
“We’ve seen time and time again that just giving someone an AOM prescription and sending them home is not a recipe for success,” said Sloan Saunders, Intellihealth CEO. “The best outcomes are achieved when clinicians take the time to create a personalized treatment plan, ensure appropriate dose titration, monitor and address any side effects, and ensure that participants receive the necessary education and support to maintain healthy lifestyle changes over the long term. With the Flyte Health Model, participants lose a clinically significant amount of weight, enabling them to improve, resolve, and/or prevent a wide range of weight-related health conditions.”
As of July 1, 2023, any Plan member seeking a GLP-1 prescription for weight loss is required to enroll in Flyte. In addition to prescribing GLP-1 medications, Flyte clinicians optimize the use of low-cost generics and other anti-obesity medications (AOMs) to contain costs while providing the intensive education and support required to maximize outcomes and set patients up for long-term success. As of April 30, 2024, 4,260 Plan members are enrolled in the program.
Integrated multidisciplinary Flyte care teams — comprised of physicians, registered dietitians, nurse practitioners, and care coordinators— create and continually fine-tune highly personalized weight management plans for participants based on the specific factors contributing to each individual’s weight gain. Plans incorporate nutrition, physical activity, and behavior modification as well as pharmacotherapy when indicated.
The second phase of the State of Connecticut program increases access to care, particularly among higher-risk populations, by expanding to qualified providers beyond the Flyte network. The Flyte technology supports providers with an evidence-based clinical recommendation engine, a sophisticated provider dashboard, obesity-related educational resources, and collaboration between electronic health record systems. State of Connecticut plan participants who receive prescriptions for anti-obesity medications have the benefit of highly tailored comprehensive obesity care delivered by qualified providers who have the tools and resources for ongoing monitoring, support, and data analysis that guides their management.
The Flyte Health Model deployed in Connecticut has also been implemented successfully by more than a dozen other employers and health plan payers around the country.
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