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About IDPH

First Evaluation Plan

Illinois Asthma Home Visiting Business Case

Asthma continues to represent a significant health problem throughout Illinois, resulting in high health care expenditures and poor quality of life (QoL). The economic burden to Illinois is more than $1.3 billion annually. As a result, the Illinois Department of Public Health's Asthma Program has continued to support asthma home visiting programs (HV), which aspire to increase health outcomes and QoL through their services. These services are provided through a one-year program involving components such as asthma medication education, asthma trigger assessments, and delivering products to mitigate these triggers. The Illinois Asthma Program Evaluation Team and stakeholders have constructed a plan to better understand the costs and benefits of asthma HV programs.

What do we want to know?

  1. How has HV improved asthma control and the overall health of the children and their family members?
  2. How has asthma HV improved the quality of life for the participants?
  3. What are the cost savings from asthma HV in Illinois?
  4. What are the estimated cost savings for each HV program/participant?
    • How has HV improved asthma control for children?
    • How has HV improved the overall health of the children and their family members?

How do we get there?

Standardized data collection will take place over a minimum of one year from four HV programs.

  • Provides individual-level evidence about participants’ perceived overall health, missed work or school days, asthma control, emergency department (ED) visits, and hospitalizations

Secondary data on county- and state-level ED visits and hospitalizations will be accessed

By figuring out numbers of ED visits and hospitalizations saved by HV, and attaching costs to those, the asthma program’s evaluation team can compare those health care costs with the cost of running the HV programs and potentially demonstrate savings in dollars.

The team will also be able to show how HV improves participants’ lives, not in dollars but in QoL indicators.

End Goal

Evaluation findings may be used as evidence in support of third-party payer reimbursement for asthma HV. Other end goals are:

  • Document evidence-based practices
  • Increase transparency, accountability, and applicability
  • Inform families and other community stakeholders of important monetary benefits of HV
  • Increase valuation of missed work and school days