Press Releases
The Assist Group Secures Exclusive Right To Distribute Groundbreaking NICU Education Program To Healthcare Payers
Lakewood, Colo., February 12, 2008
The Assist Group has acquired exclusive rights to market a groundbreaking educational intervention program, Creating Opportunities for Parent Empowerment (COPE), to payers. Demonstrated in a randomized controlled clinical trial to reduce Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) length of stay, COPE has also been shown to decrease depression, stress and anxiety for parents of premature infants. The company will offer training and materials to health plans, employers, reinsurers and third party administrators, and will use the program and materials in its own complex newborn care management service.
"The COPE program can provide exceptional benefits to payers and families with fragile newborns," says Beverly Freedman, The Assist Group's president and CEO. "It is an important addition to the wide variety of tools we offer our clients to reduce NICU costs and improve immediate outcomes for parents and their newborns. By creating a more positive interaction with parents and their infants, and providing parents with a sense of empowerment, we are improving clinical and financial outcomes."
The COPE Program was originated by Dr. Bernadette Melnyk, Dean and Distinguished Foundation Professor in Nursing at Arizona State University College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation. The NICU COPE program was tested in a recent study and the results were published in the October 2006 edition of Pediatrics. An important benefit of participation in the COPE program was reduced length of stay for preterm infants in the NICU averaging approximately four days. According to the study, which estimated daily NICU costs conservatively at $1,250, this represents potential savings of $5,000 or more per infant. Very low birth weight infants in the study (less than 1500 grams) stayed nearly eight days less than their control counterparts, with potential savings in excess of $10,000. Using the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality HCUP KIDS database, the national standard for healthcare costs, the estimated cost per day in the NICU is $3,500, which would result in even greater estimated savings, ranging from $14,000 to $28,000 per infant, based on 4 to 8 days shortened length of stay.
"We found that parents who participated in COPE were less depressed and anxious than parents in the control group," says Dr. Nancy Feinstein of COPE, who coauthored the study. "Their expectations about their infants and about their role as parents while in the NICU were clearer and more positive. They had stronger beliefs in their abilities as parents, and demonstrated more positive interaction with their babies. Benefits, including decreased depression, continued even after the infants went home."
The study concluded that the COPE program, if it were adopted in NICU's nationwide, could save an estimated $2.4 billion per year in healthcare costs.
The randomized, controlled trial was funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), a component of the National Institutes of Health. It took place over a three year period and included two hundred and sixty families with preterm infants.
About The Assist Group
The Assist Group is the industry leader in integrated disease management and claims resolution services, leveraging advanced technology and industry experts to develop the next generation of claims management solutions. The Assist Group's products include CareAssist, offering complete clinical and financial management of complex maternal-newborn-pediatric conditions, and ClinAssist, providing comprehensive complex claim resolution services, from initial screening through settlement that can significantly reduce costs. Founded in 1999, The Assist Group has offices in Lakewood, Colo. and Irvine, Calif. For more information, visit our web site at www.assistgroup.com.
About COPE for HOPE
COPE for HOPE, Inc.'s mission is to optimize mental, emotional, and physical health in parents and children experiencing life transitions, stressful events, as well as those at high risk for negative health outcomes. For more information regarding use of this program by hospitals, please contact info@copeforhope.com.