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E-Care Management News

Commentary – Lifemasters Pulls the Plug on Oklahoma Medicare Health Support Project

Christobel Selecky, Executive Chairman of Lifemasters, announced yesterday that Lifemasters was ending participation in its Oklahoma Medicare Health Support (MHS) project. The announcement was made to an audience at the Care Continuum Congress held in Washington, D.C.

The Next Big Thing – Hospital at Home

I hereby predict the Next Big Thing is hospital at home (HAH).

How do I know this? My primary source is my wife, Jill. Both of our children — now age 18 and 21 — were born by C-section during the golden era of indemnity insurance. I remember Jill practically begging her doctor to get the insurance company to authorize a few extra days in the hospital so that she could rest and recover.

I asked her how she would handle that […]

healthcare-unbound

Will Physicians Collaborate or Compete with DM Companies?

Doctors, before you get mad, let me acknowledge that the word “compete” isn’t in most physicians’ vocabularies. Doctors relate much more to a culture rooted in service and professionalism rather than business competition.

The medical home concept being advanced by primary care physicians could wind up competing with disease management (DM) companies. Ironically, this occurs at a time when most DM companies are picking up the pace of improving relationships and communications with doctors.

While the medical home model isn’t new, it […]

Resources and Commentaries – Medicare’s Chronic Care Improvement RFP

It’s the event of the year — if not the decade — for U.S. organizations involved in disease management or chronic care. On April 23 the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a request for proposal (RFP) inviting organizations to bid on Chronic Care Improvement pilot projects under Section 721 of the Medicare Modernization Act.

While the RFP has generally been viewed very positively, there are many potential pitfalls, particularly for organizations that do not have significant experience at […]

Audioconference an Update on Medicare’s Chronic Care Improvement Program

Please participate in Tuesday’s audioconference on the new Medicare Chronic Care Improvement Program! fyi, you can review my PowerPoint presentation Strategies for Winning a Contract: The CMS Chronic Care Improvement Phase I RFP.

Best of health,

Vince Kuraitis
Principal
Better Health Technologies, LLC

Press Release:

CMS Provides Update on the New Medicare Chronic Care Improvement Program in National Disease Management Audioconference

Tuesday, May 25, 2004
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm (Eastern)
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm (Central)
11:00 am – 12:30 pm (Mountain)
10:00 am – 11:30 am (Pacific)

Press Release

Contact: Paul […]

The View Down the Road – Baby Boomers Will Benefit From “Healthcare Unbound” Technologies

Forrester Research recently coined the term “Healthcare Unbound” to encompass the technology-enabled shift toward self-care, mobile care, and home care. The Center for Aging Services Technologies recently facilitated a demo day for members of Congress and showed examples of “Healthcare Unbound” technologies beginning to enter the marketplace.

Skeptics might point out that “If you look in the rearview mirror at the road we’ve traveled over in the past few years, consumer technologies haven’t had much on impact on health care.”

….and they […]

E-CareManagement News

Disease Management News Reprint

Expect Greater Use of eHealth in DM in 2004

7 Key Trends Focus on Integration of Technologies,

Convergence of Devices

1) Cost Management Will Continue to Be the Primary Driver of DM Technology Adoption
2) Predictive Modeling Technologies Will Focus on “Impactability”
3) Information and Communication Technologies Will Enable DM Assembling as a Viable Business Strategy
4) Consumer Electronics Giants Will Bring DM into the Living Room
5) Remote Patient Monitoring and Wireless Technologies Will Enable “Healthcare Unbound”
6) Personalization Technologies Will Allow Patients to […]

“Expect Greater Use of eHealth in DM in 2004 – 7 Key Trends Focus on Integration of Technologies, Convergence of Devices” Disease Management News Reprint

Cost Management Will Continue to Be the Primary Driver of DM Technology Adoption
Predictive Modeling Technologies Will Focus on “Impactability”
Information and Communication Technologies Will Enable DM Assembling as a Viable Business Strategy
Consumer Electronics Giants Will Bring DM into the Living Room
Remote Patient Monitoring and Wireless Technologies Will Enable “Healthcare Unbound”
Personalization Technologies Will Allow Patients to “Have It Your Way”
The Electronic Health Record Will Break From the Pack

We hope you enjoy the digital reprint article (Adobe Acrobat format):

This article appeared in the […]

Evidence-Based Medicine is Pivotal in Advancing Care Management

Evidence-based Medicine and Managed Care: Applications, Challenges, Opportunities
Results of a National Program to Assess Emerging Applications of Evidence-based Medicine to Medical Management Strategies in Managed Care
Vanderbilt Center for Evidence-based Medicine, December 2003

Health plans touch all facets of healthcare and therefore have a unique opportunity to stimulate adherence to evidence-based practices….The purpose of this program was to explore how managed care is applying principles and concepts of evidence-based medicine to its delicate balancing of cost and quality management.

Some of the key […]

Today’s Great Idea – The Continuity of Care Record

While attending the Mobile Healthcare Alliance meeting earlier this month in Minneapolis, I was introduced to a brilliant, yet simple concept — the Continuity of Care Record (CCR).

The usefulness of the CCR struck me like a BFO — a blinding flash of the obvious. Two speakers — Peter Waegemann, CEO of the Medical Records Institute, and Claudia Tessier, Executive Director of the Mobile Healthcare Alliance — eloquently described and advocated for the CCR.

The CCR is a concept quietly being developed […]