CCS, which now includes CCS Medical and CCS Health, has announced an expansion of its business. The company — a leading provider of home-delivered medical supplies for those living with diabetes or other chronic conditions — will be expanding the education, monitoring, and coaching services it offers to create a more collaborative approach to care. This new model incorporates the delivery of products with access to accredited clinicians supported by proprietary data and technology to simplify the patient experience. In addition, CCS has created a new strategic advisory board and added three new advisory board members to help redefine chronic care management at home.
CCS supports more than 200,000 patients living with chronic conditions in the United States and delivers more than 1.2 million shipments of medical supplies to patients in their own homes. Through its Health and Medical units, CCS works with more than 400 employers and more than 1,800 managed care plans nationally to offer a more hands-on, educational approach to supporting their population of patients with diabetes. After over a quarter of a century delivering medical supplies and more than a decade providing chronic care management services for individuals living with diabetes, CCS has the experience, data, and patient and provider relationships in place to create a new era of patient-driven, proactive chronic care management.
CCS now has two main divisions. First, CCS Health couples high-touch, human engagement with technology to assist patients with education and coaching on disease management and product adoption. Second, CCS Medical offers the most advanced technology and trusted brand names in continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pump therapy, along with the other medical product and device needs of the patient.
With CCS as their partner, patients are more likely to get on therapy and stay on therapy, improving patient outcomes and reducing costs. For example, CCS tracked an average drop of 1.15 points in patient A1C values for a large national health plan as part of CCS’s LivingLinked™ offering, which is a clinical education program. Also, CCS’s diabetes clinical care management program, called LivingConnected®, with a large employer group yielded a cost reduction of 45% for those enrolled vs. not enrolled.
“The LivingConnected program through CCS has increased adherence to the diabetes standards of care, improving the health of our employees and their spouses with diabetes, while generating substantial savings for program participants,” said Heather Hormel, Senior Director of Human Resources at United Regional Health Care Group. “Given the success we’ve had with our employee population, any organization like ours would embrace a solution that can deliver the clinical and financial results we’ve achieved through the partnership with CCS.”
“The number of people being diagnosed with diabetes in the United States has been on the rise and is expected to continue to accelerate — and the pandemic has only made things worse,” said Tony Vahedian, CEO of CCS. “It’s clear how we have historically provided care to patients with diabetes needs to evolve. That’s why we made the decision to accelerate updates to our own business model. These changes will enable our team to surround patients with the tools, resources, and support they need to manage their own care in a simpler way.”
As part of the company’s expansion, CCS kicked off a new Strategic Advisory Board to help integrate additional trusted clinical and technological leadership guidance as part of this business transition. The distinguished experts in their field who comprise the CCS Strategic Advisory Board include:
Francine Kaufman, MD — Distinguished Professor Emerita of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Francine is also a practicing endocrinologist, as well as the former president of the American Diabetes Association.
Christos M. Cotsakos, Ph.D. — Founder, chairman, and CEO of Pennington Ventures, a digital transformation, financial, and strategic management firm. He is the former chairman and CEO of E*TRADE and took the company public in 1996 as one of a handful of internet entrepreneurs and pioneers. He also served as global co-CEO of AC Nielsen and co-founded ArrowPath Venture Capital. Christos has held senior strategic roles at the intersection of healthcare and technology for more than 25 years.
Jean-Claude Saghbini — Chief Technology Officer at Lumeris. With decades of technology leadership experience, he has held leadership positions at a wide array of healthcare companies, including Wolters Kluwer Health and Cardinal Health.
“Considering the majority of people with newly diagnosed diabetes do not receive adequate care management education and training in the first year, it’s no surprise that the healthcare industry and employers continue to grapple with less than optimal adherence and outcomes with this population of patients,” said Dr. Kaufman. “I’m excited to join the advisory board at CCS — they understand that with the right supplies, personalized education, ongoing coaching, and home-based monitoring, people living with diabetes can achieve improved health outcomes.”
About CCS
CCS is a leading provider of clinical programs and home-delivered medical supplies for those living with chronic conditions, particularly diabetes. CCS supports 200,000+ patients living with chronic conditions in the United States and delivers more than 1.2 million shipments of medical supplies to patients in their own homes each year. The company works specifically with health plans and employers to offer both technology and hands-on educational services to holistically support patients living with diabetes. After serving patients for more than 25 years, CCS has the experience, data, and patient and provider relationships in place to create a new era of home-based, proactive chronic care management.