Hythiam Enters into Agreement with Ford Motor Company for Catasys Integrated Substance Dependence Solution
LOS ANGELES-(Business Wire)-September 17, 2009 - Hythiam, Inc. (NASDAQ:HYTM) announced today that the Company has entered into a three year agreement with Ford® Motor Company to provide the Catasys® integrated substance dependence solution to Ford’s hourly employees in Michigan enrolled in the National PPO and who meet certain criteria. Eligible employees struggling with alcoholism, stimulant and opiate dependence will be covered under the program, which contains medical interventions including naltrexone, Suboxone® and the proprietary PROMETA® Treatment Program, and psychosocial and care coaching components across 52 weeks. The Company will conduct direct outreach to enroll qualified members, and will also work with UAW-Ford and Ford’s EAP program to ensure the most beneficial treatment pathway for members. Contractual revenues from the agreement are based on a combination of monthly fees for the member population for Catasys, with additional monthly fees for members enrolled into the Catasys program. Operational implementation is expected to begin shortly, and the program is anticipated to launch in the fourth quarter of 2009.
“We are pleased by the level of support we received from UAW-Ford and Ford’s management personnel,” said Terren Peizer, Hythiam’s Chairman and CEO. “Our ability to engage and contract with employers and health plans highlights the flexibility of our program to address substance dependence challenges faced by diverse payors and their member populations. We have realigned our company and developed Catasys for the managed care market, and it is rewarding to have a new agreement that further publicly validates our product and business model. Ford’s desire to improve employee care and productivity demonstrates a significant opportunity for health plans to provide their customers the Catasys solution. We look forward to additional agreements over the coming months, and we remain focused on providing effective solutions that enhance member care and improve clinical outcomes, resulting in lower total health care costs. This is especially important as payors face multiple challenges including the recently passed mental health parity and addiction equity bill (Wellstone Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008), and increasing budgetary constraints at a time of rising substance dependence rates due to the current economic environment.”
Various studies, research and other resources demonstrate that:
- Problems related to alcohol and drug abuse cost American businesses roughly $81 billion in lost productivity each year
- 77% of illicit drug users in the United States are employed
- 500 million workdays are lost annually due to alcoholism
- Up to 40% of industrial fatalities and 47% of industrial injuries can be linked to alcohol use and alcoholism
- Employees who use drugs are 3.6 times more likely to be involved in a workplace accident and 5 times more likely to file a workers’ compensation claim
- Employees who use drugs are 2.2 times more likely to request early dismissal or time off, 2.5 times more likely to have absences of eight days or more, and 3 times more likely to be late for work
Catasys is focused on improving member care and providing better clinical outcomes in an effort to reduce overall health care costs. Catasys was designed to manage substance dependence as a chronic disease, with a focus on integration between evidence-based medical and psychosocial elements in an outpatient setting, combined with care coaches who will guide and assist members with long-term recovery. Catasys includes identification, engagement, treatment, coaching and ongoing monitoring components directed at providing members with a customized pathway to recovery. The delivery of the program’s medical and psychosocial components is conducted by a trained specialty network of providers who are addiction specialists, and who organize care with care coaches through Catasys’s IT technology platform. Catasys also conducts outreach to qualified members and coordinates with client resources to enroll them in the program, including a focus on reducing barriers to treatment.
About Hythiam® and Catasys®
Hythiam, Inc. provides through its Catasys subsidiary, specialized behavioral health management services to health plans, employers and unions through a network of licensed and company managed health care providers. The Catasys substance dependence program was designed to address substance dependence as a chronic disease. The program seeks to lower costs and improve member health through the delivery of integrated medical and psychosocial interventions in combination with long term care coaching, including the proprietary PROMETA® Treatment Program for alcoholism and stimulant dependence. The PROMETA Treatment Program, which integrates behavioral, nutritional, and medical components, is also available on a private-pay basis through licensed treatment providers. Hythiam does not practice medicine or manufacture, distribute, or sell any medications and has no relationship with any manufacturers or distributors of medications used in the PROMETA Treatment Program. For further information, please visit www.hythiam.com and www.catasyshealth.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Except for statements of historical fact, the matters discussed in this press release are forward looking and made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements reflect numerous assumptions and involve a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control that may cause actual results to differ materially from stated expectations. These risk factors include, among others, limited operating history and lack of statistically significant formal research studies, the risk that treatment protocols might not be effective, difficulty in developing, exploiting and protecting proprietary technologies, intense competition and substantial regulation in the health care industry; and additional risks factors as discussed in the reports filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on its website at http://www.sec.gov.
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