A new study published in The American Journal of Managed Care finds that an employer-sponsored digital digestive care management program significantly reduced healthcare spending for employees with chronic GI conditions.
In a propensity-matched analysis, participants using virtual digestive care—combining symptom tracking, personalized nutrition therapy, health coaching, and education—had 18% lower total healthcare costs after one year compared with nonparticipants. This translated to $2,026 in annual savings per member.
With an average program cost of $345 per member per year, the intervention generated a 5.87:1 return on investment, driven largely by reductions in inpatient admissions and emergency department visits, despite slightly higher outpatient and pharmacy use.
Why this matters:
As employers and health systems look for scalable ways to manage high-burden, highly symptomatic GI conditions, this study adds economic evidence that virtual digestive care can improve access while shifting care away from high-cost settings.