Catasys Continues to Expand its OnTrak Program for Medicare and Medicaid Payers
Medicare and Medicaid Grows as an Overall Portion of Company's Business Mix
LOS ANGELES, March 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Catasys, Inc. (OTCQB: CATS), provider of proprietary healthcare management services to health insurers and employers, today announced that it has been steadily increasing the number of managed Medicare and Medicaid members covered under its OnTrak program. In addition to increases in commercial members covered under its OnTrak program, which includes the recent expansion into new commercial populations such as New Jersey and Florida, Catasys believes it will continue to add Medicare and Medicaid covered lives in 2015, with enrollment growing as an overall portion of the business mix.
Medicare and Medicaid health plans represent significant opportunities for Catasys' OnTrak program as those populations have a much higher prevalence of Substance Use Disorder diagnosed members and generally generate higher revenue per patient compared to commercial lives. Additionally, more of these members incur high claims costs, making them eligible for the OnTrak program than in a comparably sized commercial health plan. This results in Medicare and Medicaid plans having approximately 2.5 or more times as many members eligible for OnTrak as a Commercial health plan based on the Company's data analysis. Additionally, both managed Medicare and Medicaid populations have been growing and are expected to continue to do so. Medicare growth is fueled by the ongoing aging of the population and a larger portion of this population choosing managed Medicare health insurance. Medicaid growth is attributable to both an increasing number of states switching from fee-for-service to managed Medicare, as well as 28 states (including the District of Columbia) electing to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Rick Anderson, President and COO of Catasys commented, "Our current mix of eligible members is approximately 70% commercial and 30% Medicare and Medicaid members. We anticipate a continuing shift in our business to a higher mix of Medicare/Medicaid, resulting in a potential increase in our average revenue per member. We also have experienced greater retention rates in this population which allows us to have greater impact on members' health and affects our economic model in a positive way. By helping members improve their overall health and thereby reducing in-patient medical admission, we have been able to demonstrate reductions in total health care costs to health insurance companies and other payors. We believe these outcomes demonstrate our value proposition within the industry and help fuel our growth."
About Catasys, Inc.
Catasys, Inc. provides specialized healthcare management services to health plans and employers through its OnTrak program. Catasys' OnTrak program – contracted with a growing number of health insurers – is designed to improve member health and at the same time lower costs to the insurer for underserved populations where behavioral health conditions are exacerbating co-existing medical conditions. The program utilizes member engagement and patient centric treatment that integrates evidence based medical and psychosocial interventions along with care coaching in a 52-week outpatient program. OnTrak is currently improving member health and, at the same time, is demonstrating reduced inpatient and emergency room utilization driving a more than 50% reduction in total health insurers' costs for enrolled members. Catasys has contracts with many health insurance providers and currently has approximately 1.8 million Commercially Equivalent Lives (CELs) covered under contracts and located in nine states. Catasys' initial focus is on the high cost substance abuse populations, where it has incentivized health plans to spend more on behavioral health to improve overall member health resulting in lower hospital utilization and cost. In addition, Catasys is looking towards other populations and behavioral health disease conditions to expand to in the future. For further information, please visit www.catasys.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Except for statements of historical fact, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking and made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements reflect numerous assumptions and involve a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control that may cause actual results to differ materially from stated expectations. These risk factors include, among others, changes in regulations or issuance of new regulations or interpretations, limited operating history, our inability to execute our business plan, increase our revenue and achieve profitability, lower than anticipated eligible members under our contracts, our inability to recognize revenue, lack of outcomes and statistically significant formal research studies, difficulty enrolling new and maintain existing members in our programs, the risk that treatment programs might not be effective, difficulty in developing, exploiting and protecting proprietary technologies, intense competition and substantial regulation in the health care industry, the risks associated with the adequacy of our existing cash resources and our ability to continue as a going concern, our ability to raise additional capital when needed and our liquidity. You are urged to consider statements that include the words "may," "will," "would," "could," "should," "believes," "estimates," "projects," "potential," "expects," "plan," "anticipates," "intends," "continues," "forecast," "designed," "goal," or the negative of those words other comparable words to be uncertain and forward-looking. For a further list and description of the risks and uncertainties we face, please refer to our most recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings which are available on its website at http://www.sec.gov. Such forward-looking statements are current only as of the date they are made, and we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
SOURCE Catasys, Inc.
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