July 8, 2026
Buffalo, New York-based Independent Health has already made significant progress on its Chronic Disease Pledge (CDP) goals, slowing the progression of diabetes and improving outcomes for members. Health plan leaders attribute that progress to a deliberate choice: embedding its pledge commitment directly into its population health management strategy and pursuing data-driven, digitally enabled approaches to deepen member engagement. Rather than treating chronic disease management as a stand-alone initiative, Independent Health has embedded it into its daily organizational operations.
That integration starts with people. The work depends on close collaboration across population health management, quality, pharmacy, communications and case management. These teams review CDP progress regularly through quality committees, where they share and discuss performance on HEDIS and STAR measures, creating a structure that builds accountability and identifies new strategies for improvement. Leadership support has been essential. Senior leaders treat the CDP as a strategic priority and have built it into organizational scorecards and planning processes, signaling its importance throughout the organization.
A Foundation Built on Data
At the core of Independent Health’s approach is a commitment to letting data, rather than assumptions, guide its interventions. The organization maintains a disease registry that is refreshed monthly, allowing teams to identify members with new or existing chronic conditions, including diabetes. From there, the data helps teams pinpoint care gaps such as missing A1c results, track trends over time and deploy targeted, condition-specific interventions. Because the registry is continually updated, the team can refine its strategies as member needs evolve, rather than waiting for an annual review.
Meeting Members Where They Are
Digital engagement is a centerpiece of Independent Health’s self-management support. The plan partners with the Brook Health Companion app to give members condition-specific education, access to health coaches, virtual visits with registered dietitians and tools for goal setting and self-management. Each month, the team uses its disease registry to identify eligible members and encourage them to enroll with tailored outreach that pairs education with clear next steps.
Internally, the plan developed Member Action Plan “MAP journeys” that guide members toward specific health actions, such as lowering A1c levels. These journeys deliver targeted education through multimedia resources—like videos from the organization’s wellness platform and evidence-based sources from the American Diabetes Association—and give members clear, actionable next steps, from downloading the right condition-specific app to self-referring into case management. Throughout, Independent Health tailors its messaging to ensure the right information is reaching the right members.
Reaching the Highest-Risk Members
Digital tools are paired with focused clinical strategies for members who need the most support. Case management teams target members with A1c levels above 9 for intensive outreach, while pharmacy teams work to improve statin use and medication management. Most recently, the plan expanded the MAP journeys to include chronic kidney disease, identifying members with diabetes and hypertension, using near-real-time lab data to guide interventions before disease progression.
A focus on health equity runs through all the programming, across every line of business. Independent Health has built partnerships with community-based organizations to connect members experiencing food insecurity with food pantries, and it weaves those community resources into its member outreach campaigns.
The Early Results
Though the work is evolving, the results so far are encouraging. Member engagement in chronic disease programs has risen year over year, with digital app engagement up 24% and virtual dietician visits up 21%. Real-time data has improved the team’s ability to identify and close care gaps. Most striking are the clinical trends: Independent Health has seen a 22.4% decrease in the progression rate from prediabetes to diabetes and an overall 19.3% decrease in diabetes among its members—exactly the outcomes the Chronic Disease Pledge is designed to encourage.
Independent Health’s experience offers a few lessons for health plans pursuing similar goals. Leadership commitment, the team emphasizes, is essential. Designing interventions around real member data, rather than assumptions about what members need, consistently produces better outcomes and collaboration amongst cross-functional teams strengthens implementation and innovation.
Looking ahead, Independent Health plans to broaden this data-driven, digitally enabled foundation by refining its outreach, expanding into other conditions and continuing to meet members through the channels they already use. In doing so, the plan offers a clear example of how embedding a chronic disease commitment into everyday operations, and backing it with data, can help to move the needle on member health.
