The Kansas City Children’s Asthma Management Program (KC CAMP) is improving asthma care at the health plan, provider, and patient levels. Certified asthma educators from the program use a standardized asthma curriculum to train care providers and staff at clinics within the Family Health Partners network; the providers then educate asthma patients to manage their disease. Providers are reimbursed for the time they spend educating patients through partnerships with insurers: $40 for each patient’s initial visit for education and $20 for following sessions. The program also developed a central asthma registry to track patient information and outcomes, and supplies wallet-sized Asthma Action Cards to accompany one-page Action Plans. In 2007, Family Health Partners became a Kansas Medicaid provider, expanding the reach of the asthma management program.

The goal of KC CAMP is to improve asthma care through provider and patient education.

KC CAMP has been implemented through the Family Health Partners network of 357 providers and 78 offices with approximately 7,500 identified asthmatic children. More than 2,500 enrollees have asthma action plans and patient identification and management has increased from 11% of children diagnosed to 16.8%. Since the program was implemented there has been a 40% reduction in asthma-related ER visits, a 50% reduction in hospitalizations, and a 35% reduction in treatment costs. The program is cost effective, having reduced the cost of caring for members with asthma by $2 per member per month, at a cost of only $0.43 per member per month.