Disease Management for Hypertension: A Call to Action

While the population health management service industry has a successful track record when it comes to chronic heart failure, diabetes and asthma, the Disease Management Care Blog thinks, after a quick scan of the literature, that there are fewer studies of its impact on hypertension.

 A recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) reminds us that that's a problem.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(NHANES) performs interviews and physical examinations of a representative sample of U.S. households.  This particular report on the prevalence and treatment of high blood pressure was based on a sample of 20,811 individuals from four 2-year survey cycles that were performed from 2003 to 2010.

Extrapolating from the sample, 66.9 million persons or 30.4% of the U.S. populationn have high blood pressure. Of this population, just over half (54% or 35.8 million) have uncontrolled hypertension.  Of these persons, 31 million (or 88%) had been seen by a health care provider in the preceding year. The prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension among those hypertensives with Medicare was 52%. Not having health insurance or having seen a health care provider in the past year increased the risk of untreated and uncontrolled high blood pressure.

What's more, the DMCB discovered control of hypertension doesn't appear to be getting better over time.

The good news is that the treatment of high blood pressure is not all that complicated and that team-based non-physicians can play an important role.  Patients should be engaged on weight control, a DASH diet, restricting salt, exercise and moderating alcohol intake. Medication therapy can be individualized and tailored to meet mutually agreed-upon goals and to minimize any barriers.  Check out this MMWR table and you'll see references to "lifestyle counseling," "self monitoring," "self-management education."

Given the looming shortage of primary care care settings and the coming influx of newly insured persons, the DMCB believes population health management will need to be part of the solution.  In addition to the established science, the industry 1) understands the importance of risk stratification, 2) can be bolted onto accountable care arrangements and 3) understands that optimal outcomes are somewhere between 46% and 100% control.

Hopefully, given the relative dearth of high quality studies, this opportunity will be accompanied by ongoing studies of outcomes.