Earlier this week Healthways issued a press release describing their progress in pursuing a Phase II Medicare Health Support (MHS) project. Read Dr. Jaan Sidorov’s blog commentary for additional background.
In brief, Healthways position is that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is statutorily required to expand into Phase II of MHS if Phase I is “successful”. While […]
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Archive for the "DM Megatrend #3: Medicare" category
While not providing anything close to the “final answer”, The New York Times does a good job summarizing the onoging Medicare Health Support (MHS) fracas. To borrow from one of my colleagues, it’s more “enlightened ambiguity” about the ultimate fate of the MHS beached whale.
Medicare Finds How Hard It Is to Save Money, The New York Times; April 7, 2008
For […]
Vince Kuraitis and Thomas Wilson, PhD, DrPH
“If you aren’t confused you don’t know what’s going on.”
Jack Welch, former CEO, General Electric
Thanks to the continuing opacity of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Serices (CMS), we remain confused about the future of Medicare Health Support (MHS).
It’s been over a month since we last commented on MHS. What’s MHS? It’s JUST […]
Here’s the link to Part II of the podcast in which Tom Wilson and I are interviewed by Les Masterson of HealthLeaders Media. If you want to start at the beginning, Part I is available here.
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Vince Kuraitis and Thomas Wilson, PhD, DrPH
“Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light”
Dylan Thomas
Despite CMS’ recent cocktail hour pronouncement that Medicare Health Support (MHS) is on its last legs, many are fighting to prolong its life.
Recent Developments
DMAA is working with Sen. John Kerry to introduce legislation mandating the continuation […]
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 […]
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 […]
by Al Lewis, JD
Add the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to the growing list of people and organizations who cannot find financial savings through disease management. Weeks after “lowering the bar” on MHS program savings requirements to 0% from 5%, CMS cancelled the program altogether due to the unlikelihood that the much-reduced threshold for savings would be achieved in […]
Thomas Wilson, PhD, DrPH and Vince Kuraitis
Last Tuesday during the cocktail hour, CMS issued documents portending the end of the Medicare Health Support (MHS) project.
We initially used the word “bizarre” to describe the announcement from CMS’ staff. After further thought, “reckless” and/or “insubordinate” strike closer to home.
First, let’s have the head-honcho at CMS instruct […]
Healthways stock price declined today by $10.52 (15.9%) after CMS “announcement” about ending Medicare Health Support (MHS) Phase 1. This equates to a loss of $389 million in market capitalization…poof! Gone. Healthways is one of the remaining five participants in the MHS program.
Without pointing fingers, it’s obvious that investors were surprised by the news. What happened?
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Vince Kuraitis and Thomas Wilson, PhD, DrPH
Today’s POO (persistent obfuscatory orations) Award goes to the Centers for Medicare Services (CMS) for their posting of two bizarre documents updating progress on the Medicare Health Support (MHS) program. The documents “appeared” (no press release, no announcement, a reference to “today” but no date) on the web page for the MHS demonstration […]
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 […]
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 […]
Just about everybody in the world has been talking about problems that Medicare is having with chronic disease management (DM) demonstration projects…everybody except the folks at Medicare.
Well, that’s finally changing. Today’s POE (plain old English) award is presented to Linda Magno, Director, Medicare Demonstrations at CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services).
Here are a couple of slides from […]
Thomas Wilson, PhD, DrPH and Vince Kuraitis, JD, MBA
The conventional wisdom in the disease management (DM) community has been that the Medicare Health Support (MHS) project would provide the evidence to resolve two issues:
First, MHS would once-and-for-all resolve the issue of “does DM have ROI? (return on investment).” It was thought that the randomized control […]
Please join me at a live teleconference next Tuesday, August 21 at 1 pm Eastern:
New Health Plan Strategies for Disease Management: Lessons Learned From the Medicare Health Support Pilot
Click the link for details about the agenda and registration.
The faculty includes:
CHRISTOBEL SELECKY, chairman, president and CEO of LifeMasters Supported SelfCare, Inc. She also is immediate past president […]
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 […]
I know that I’m sounding like a broken record.
The first “official” results from the Medicare Health Support (MHS) disease management (DM) pilot projects were published last week. While the results are preliminary, there is virtually no evidence of any early success. Here are three key findings from the executive summary of the report:
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Presenting at the Annual Academy Health Research Meeting earlier this week, representatives from Mathematica Research and CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services) presented findings across several Medicare disease management (DM) demonstration/pilot programs.
Again, the findings show minimal evidence of success in any of the Medicare DM programs. Several of the slides from Randall Brown of Mathematica […]
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 […]
Now that Medicare’s future direction for chronic care management has become murky, I’ve started to pay more attention to the many other demonstration/pilot projects that Medicare has in the works relating to chronic care.
In April Medicare announced roll out of its DOQ-IT U (Doctor’s Office Quality — Information Technology University), as a part of the […]
Can I interest you in a 2 minute summary of DM in Medicare? Please read my posting Medicare Chronic Disease Management Direction? It’s Anybody’s Guess on the World Health Care Blog.
The World Health Care Blog is a unique experiment sponsored by the World Health Care Congress. Please also check out the excellent health care blogs of my fellow bloggers:
Tony Chen […]
Medicare’s major thrust at chronic disease management innovation — the Medicare Health Support (MHS) pilot project — continues to gather storm clouds.
Today’s POO (persistent obfuscatory orations) Award goes to Healthways for their explanation of MHS progress (or lack thereof) in an April 4 press release. If you can understand what they’re saying about MHS (see p. 3) without having your CPA […]
Mathematica Research has just released a report: The Evaluation of the Medicare Coordinated Care Demonstration: Findings for the First Two Years. It’s not pretty.
Section F of the Executive Summary is entitled “Synthesizing the Findings: What Works, and What Doesn’t”. That section begins:
Given that few of the programs have shown convincing evidence to date of reducing […]
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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