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Chronic Disease Management • Technology • Strategy • Issues and Trends

Archive for the "DM Megatrend #4: Providers" category

Medical Home Webinar

On behalf of World Research Group, Dr. Jaan Sidorov and I will be conducting a webinar –
Patient-Centered Medical Home Model: Overview and Update.
The webinar takes place next Monday, July 28 at 12 Eastern. Click here for details. Hope you can join us.

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AHIP “Adopts” Medical Home Principles: Huh?

On the surface, you might think that a press release issued by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) adopting principles for a patient centered medical home (PCMH) would advance the cause.
But, look further…
The principles endorsed by AHIP only vaguely resemble the Joint Principles of the PCMH endorsed by 4 major primary care physician groups . These [...]

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Cerner Disses Google Health. Surprised?

Vince Kuraitis and David C. Kibbe, MD, MBA

We’re not.
From the Kansas City Business Journal :
Google Inc. has approached Cerner Corp. about a partnership, but Cerner officials don’t sound eager to entangle themselves with the Web-search Goliath.
That’s because the proposed partnership relates to Google Health, the personal health record site launched earlier in [...]

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Extra: Will $87 Per Hour Rescue Primary Care?

Since the AMA has issued some “real” numbers relating to the RUC’s recommendations for valuing the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH), I’ve added a fourth part to this series.
The June 2 issue of American Medical News provides payment scenarios for a medical home:

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The Medical Home: Pull the RUC Out

This third and final post in the series addresses questions about the future of the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCHM):

What’s problematic about using the RUC methodology with the PCMH?
What’s the optimal level for a PCMH care management fee?
Should primary care leaders pull the RUC out? How? 

What’s Problematic About Using the RUC Methodology with the PCMH?
There are [...]

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The Medical Home Hits the RUC

Today’s post (#2 in a series) tackles several questions:

What is the American Medical Association/Specialty Society RVS Update Committee (RUC)?
What is the RUC’s role in the Medicare Medical Home Demonstration project?
How are people reacting to RUC recommendations for PCMH reimbursement levels?

What is the American Medical Association/Specialty Society RVS Update Committee (RUC)?
The AMA formed the RUC to act [...]

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The Medical Home: Confusion Over Care Management Fees

The honeymoon is over.
Prior to April 29, 2008, reviews of the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model  had been uniformly enthusiastic and positive.
Today the PCMH model is hitting reality — someone’s going to have to bring home money to pay the bills. On April 29 the American Medical Association/Specialty Society RVS Update Committee (RUC) released a  report making recommendations relating [...]

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21 Surprising Ways Wal-Mart Clinics Will Affect US Healthcare

Jessica Hupp at RN Central writes a thought provoking article titled 20 Surprising Ways Wal-Mart Clinics Will Affect US Healthcare.
#20 is “Decreased Continuity of Care”.  I think this one is debatable, and I’ll offer as #21 “Increased Continuity of Care”.  
Jessica writes:
With traditional doctors, patients have charts and medical records, but at in-store clinics, diagnosis is [...]

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The Medical Home: Advancing, But Still Many Questions

Paul Keckley and colleagues at the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions have released an important contribution to advance the dialog about the medical home (MH).  It’s entitled The Medical Home: Disruptive Innovation for a New Primary Care Model.  The report offers a strategic perspective on the potential for the MH to address the challenge of chronic care [...]

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HealthSpring “Gets” Physician Engagement.

I’ve written a lot recently about Medicare Health Support (MHS).  We are learning a lot from MHS about what DOESN’T work with the frail, elderly Medicare population.
 
But, what DOES work?
 
One key lesson emerging from MHS is the need to integrate and engage physicians and other local care providers…easier said than done.
 
MHS is just one of many experimental [...]

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The PowerPoint — DM Megatrends 2008

Last week I did the major annual tune-up of my presentation on Disease Management Megatrends for the MCOL Future Care Web Summit. 
I’m pleased to share a copy of the PowerPoint presentation with you, and I hope you find it useful and provocative.  You can view and/or download a copy here (6MB).  This version contains 77 slides, which would [...]

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Hospital Economics Don’t Reward Chronic Disease Management

My colleague and friend Dr. Jaan Sidorov has recently started a blog — Disease Management Care Blog.  Check it out and add it to your RSS feed.  Jaan is eminently qualified to write on the topic — he spent 25 years at Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania as a practicing physician and as an executive, [...]

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Podcast: The 20 Minute Version of “DM Megatrends”

Over the past week I’ve been doing a major tune-up of my presentation on Disease Management Megatrends for the annual MCOL Future Care Web Summit. 
More typically, DM Megatrends is 45–90 minute presentation with accompanying PowerPoint slides.
As part of the Web Summit, the good folks at MCOL asked me to do a short podcast on highlights of this presentation. They’re [...]

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How the AMA Undermined Chronic Disease Care in America

Over at The Health Care Blog, Brian Klepper has written an excellent article entitled “Bad Medicine: How The AMA Undermined Primary Care in America.”
His essay could just as easily been entitled “How the AMA Undermined Chronic Disease Care in America” — it’s very informative reading.

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Disease Management and the Medical Home Model: Competing or Complementary?

I feel like handing out cigars.
My article — “Disease Management and the Medical Home Model: Competing and Complimentary” — has been published in the latest issue of Disease Management and Health Outcomes, a peer reviewed journal.
I’ve arranged with the publisher to make copies available through my website. You can download a copy here.
Why is [...]

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A Medicare Administrator’s “To Do” List: the EHR, Chronic Disease Management, Primary Care….

Let’s drop in on a top Medicare administrator as he reviews his “to do” list over a morning cup of coffee.
TO DO
1) George says everybody’s gotta have an EHR by 2014

tougher than getting a man to the moon in the 60s
stall — G will be gone by then

2) solve chronic disease crisis

chronic disease costs are killing [...]

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20 Minutes of Questions Won’t Fit into a 7 Minute Doctor Visit

Greetings from Boston.  I’ve been attending and speaking at the Inaugural Summit on Behavioral Telehealth: Technology for Behavior Change & Disease Management.
The conference chair is Dr. Steve Locke, Prof. of Psychiatry at Harvard.  He opened the meeting yesterday with a thoughtful line of questioning to the audience.
Dr. Locke asked “How many of you audience members have participated [...]

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European vs. U.S. Primary Care: We Have Things Backwards

The status of primary care is dramatically different in Europe vs. the U.S.
While doing background reading, I was startled by the title of a book: “Primary care in the driver’s seat? Organisational reform in European primary care” The book was reviewed in the International Journal of Integrated Care.

Is primary care capable of taking a dominant role in running [...]

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A Founding Father of DM Astonishingly Declares: “My Kid is Ugly”

Al Lewis, one of the founding fathers of DM, has shaped the face of the DM industry probably more than other any single individual. (This is all fine unless you happen to be the person whose face is being shaped by Al.)
Al has been unabashedly pro-DM.  Until now.  Al writes in a recent article in Managed Healthcare Executive:

Disease management as we now define [...]

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Despite Limited Penetration, Integrated Delivery Systems Have Advanced Chronic Care

The 1990’s experiment around development of integrated delivery systems (IDSs) mostly did not take root. This experiment was primarily about financial integration — doctors joining with hospitals so that they could together contract with health insurers for capitated reimbursement, hospitals starting their own health plan, or hospitals buying physician practices as a way of guaranteeing [...]

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United’s Move to Fine Physicians: The Other POV

Joe Paduda at the Managed Care Matters blog makes some great counterpoints defending United Health’s moves threatening to fine doctors for making out-of-network lab referrals.  I recommend that you read his essay and his readers comments.
In my posting from a couple days ago — Doctors and Health Plans: Can Care Management Opportunities Reconcile the Hatfields and the [...]

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Doctors and Health Plans: Can Care Management Opportunities Reconcile the Hatfields and the McCoys?

I’m going to try something different in this blog posting. I’d like to introduce a fairly open-ended issue that 1) is of great importance, and 2) is highly debatable.   I’ll be the first to admit that my thinking about this is half baked.
Here’s the issue. Over the coming years, will health plans and doctors:

Continue to [...]

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Healthcare Informatics Webinar — Disease Management (DM): Will Providers Seize the Opportunity to Be Back in Charge?

Next Thursday April 12, Dr. Randy Williams and I will jointly be presenting our perspectives in a webinar entitled:. 

Disease Management (DM): Will Providers Seize the Opportunity to Be Back in Charge?

Click the link for details about the agenda and registration   You can receive a 15% discount by entering the following Promotional Code:   0412VK

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AARP On the Fence About Care Coordination Roles

Just in case this particular item hasn’t yet reached the top of your own to read pile, let me bring to your attention recent testimony to the Senate Finance Committee on Medicare Payment of Physician Services.
The testimony was presented on March 1 by Byron Thames, MD, an AARP Board member. With over 35 million members, [...]

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Porter/Teisberg JAMA Article: Out-of-the-Box or Out-of-Touch?

“In theory, there is no difference between theory and reality. In reality, there is.”  Yogi Bera

Out-of-the-box thinking is good; out-of-touch thinking is not. Dr. Porter and Teisberg’s (PT’s) recent article in JAMA “How Physicians Can Change the Future of Health Care” is disappointing, unrealistic and dangerous.

Disappointing: Please Answer the Challenges About Why [...]

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