7 things you should know about that big fall prevention study

Perhaps because the program covered a broad range of health and wellness issues, and encouraged participants to follow up with their physicians, much of the reduction in costs involved health care concerns unrelated to falls.

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4. Intervention can lead people to make their homes safer.

Participants in the treatment group were nearly 20 percent more likely to make fall-prevention modifications to their home than the participants in the control group were. 

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 5. Intervention can increase people’s sense of control over their safety.

LIFT program participants said that they were less afraid of falling, and that they believed the program would help them avoid falls. This is important because a concern about falls is actually a risk factor for a fall. 

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6. People seem to like participating in fall-prevention programs.

LIFT treatment group participants were asked how they felt about the program. The vast majority of participants said that it was valuable and that they would recommend it to others. The combination of a nurse visiting the home, detailed recommendations, and continued follow-up gave participants a sense that they were part of an ongoing program. Of course, the fact that their insurance company was providing the program free of cost also went a long way toward generating positive feelings.

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7. It’s time to act.

Our study shows that the LIFT falls prevention program reduces the rate of reported falls and risk factors for people ages 75 and older, leads to lower all-cause LTCI claims costs, and has a positive return on investment.

Like the effectiveness of other multi-factorial interventions that depend in part on behavioral change, the effectiveness of LIFT weakens over time. The waning effect of the intervention suggests that a “booster” intervention may be beneficial.

This could include additional follow-up calls to monitor action plan implementation, and to provide more ideas about ways to mitigate risk. The team could also promote more intensive follow-up with the participant’s physician, to ensure that the implications of the assessment findings are understood, discussed, and acted upon.

According to America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), there are now about 7 million U.S. residents who have private LTCI policies. Many of these people bought their policies so that they can get the services necessary to help them age in place, even if they require long-term services and supports (LTSS) to compensate for functional or cognitive disabilities.

The LIFT program or similar programs could be offered on a voluntary basis to current in-force policyholders as a way to help preserve independence and reduce the need for LTSS on a cost-effective basis. Experience in marketing of this program suggests that between 30 percent and 40 percent of policyholders agree to voluntarily enroll in the program.

Over the past few years, a growing number of LTCI issuers have been increasing premiums for in-force policyholders. A wellness program that — among other things — reduces falls, could help companies to hold down rate increases for policyholders who voluntarily participate in such programs. This would could help both consumers and issuers alike.

Health insurers have made prevention of obesity and diabetes a priority, and they have stepped up efforts to encourage use of mammograms to reduce the incidence of invasive breast cancer. It’s unclear what concrete steps health insurers have taken to go beyond promoting fall risk assessments and actually reduce the number of falls.

There are a number of well-designed fall-prevention programs that health insurers can consider implementing, from LifePlan’s LIFT program to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s STEADI program, among others. It’s time for health plans to go beyond simply assessing the risk of falls.

Plans should adopt the kinds of fall prevention programs that have been shown to deliver measurable benefits for older individuals.