UPMC Prescription for Wellness: Lessons Learned From 10 Years of Progress and Innovation

Abstract

UPMC Prescription for Wellness (PFW) is a platform that enables provider-payer care coordination for health care consumers who need enhanced support. UPMC healthcare and network providers use PFW to refer their patients who are UPMC Health Plan members to payer-sponsored clinical and wellness services. PFW is integrated into EMRs, offers multi-channel outreach, and enables UPMC’s provider and payer organizations to efficiently collaborate on supporting the health of the patient-member population they both serve. Because the payer-sponsored clinical services are “prescribed” by trusted healthcare providers, PFW dramatically improves patient-member engagement. In this Critical Issues and Trends article, we detail specifics of PFW implementation as well as lessons learned over the past decade to enable readers to replicate this program that demonstrates how payer-sponsored clinical and wellness services can offer a viable set of options to improve health when prescribed by a healthcare provider.