Diabetes Health Information Technology Innovation to Improve Quality of Life for Health Plan Members in Urban Safety Net

Safety net systems need innovative diabetes self-management programs for linguistically diverse patients. A low-income government-sponsored managed care plan implemented a 27-week automated telephone self-management support/health coaching intervention for English-, Spanish-, and Cantonese-speaking members from 4 publicly funded clinics in a practice-based research network. Compared to waitlist, immediate intervention participants had greater 6-month improvements in overall diabetes self-care behaviors (standardized effect size [ES] = 0.29, P < .01) and 12-Item Short Form Health Survey physical scores (ES = 0.25, P = .03); changes in patient-centered processes of care and cardiometabolic outcomes did not differ. Automated telephone self-management is a strategy for improving patient-reported self-management and may also improve some outcomes.