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Medicare/Care Coordination
Medicare Health Support: 8 Takeaways on Building Better Bridges
by Thomas Wilson, PhD, DrPH and Vince Kuraitis
What’s the right metaphor for Medicare Health Support (MHS), CMS’ major experiment with disease management for Medicare beneficiaries? We prefer to look it as a bridge failure that presents an opportunity to improve future engineering and design.
We’ve now had the time to read, reread, and reread again the very recent report from Research Triangle Institute (RTI) — Evaluation of Phase I of the Medicare Health Support Pilot Program Under Traditional Fee-for-Service Medicare: […]
CMS Releases 2nd Report on Medicare Health Support
by Vince Kuraitis and Thomas Wilson, PhD, DrPH
CMS has just released the 2nd Report to Congress evaluating the Medicare Health Support (MHS) program. MHS is Medicare’s most visible and significant demo focusing on chronic disease management.
We’ve been poring over the report and will provide more detailed analysis and implications later this week. This 2nd Report to Congress covers 18 months of data on this 3 year project. It provides far more details and substantiation than RTI’s first report, which only covered 6 […]
Finally! CMS Provides a Flood of Details About the Medicare Medical Home Demo
I’ve been critical in the past when CMS has been silent in explaining their thinking, so I’ll start this post by congratulating CMS on sharing a flood of details about the upcoming Medicare Medical Home Demonstration project.
An email from CMS arrived in my inbox this morning at 2 am. That email notified me that they have updated the MMHD homepage . A quick click lead me to 8 new documents containing 155 pages of newly available details on the MMHD.
If you have time to read […]
Details “Emerge” on the Medicare Medical Home Demonstration
Where would one expect to find CMS’ latest thinking on the upcoming Medicare Medical Home Demonstration project? The obvious answer would be “on the Official CMS MMHD home page ”, but you’d be wrong.
CMS has issued a Medicare Medical Home Demonstration Payment Contractor RFP available on the Federal Business Opportunities website. Thanks to the Google Alert service for digging this out.
For the casual reader, the details of the MMHD are taking shape nicely. CMS and its advisors have obviously […]
Doctors Bat A Thousand in Year Two of PGP Medicare Demo
CMS announced today that all 10 participating groups in the Physician Group Practice (PGP) demonstration achieved quality targets, and that the groups are sharing $16.7 million in incentive payments. The program rewards providers for improved outcomes delivered to Medicare patients with congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, and diabetes.
This goes a long way in explaining Medicare’s seeming lack of enthusiasm for past or future disease management demos with DM companies and/or health plans.
Congratulations doctors!
UPDATE: The doctors might have batted […]
Medical Home PowerPoint and Latest Perspectives
Last week my esteemed colleague Dr. Jaan Sidorov and I conducted a webinar for WRG on Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) developments.
The process of updating a PowerPoint forces one to collect one’s thoughts, and I’m glad to share with you the PowerPoint slides along with a few highlights about the evolution of the PCMH. The highlights:
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.
Healthways Fights an Uphill Battle on Medicare Health Support Phase II
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 I’m very sympathetic with Healthways predicament and their frustration with CMS, I’m not optimistic that their tactics are likely to work.
In making the case, Healthways […]
NYT Provides More “Enlightened Ambiguity” on Medicare Health Support
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.Â
Medicare Finds How Hard It Is to Save Money, The New York Times; April 7, 2008
For One Company, Role in Medicare Experiment Has Hurt Stock, The New York Times; April 7, 2008
The Medicare Health Support Saga: Opacity in Government Going Strong
 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
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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 the Federal Government’s most significant and visible effort to deal with one of the American health system’s biggest challenges — managing care for patients with […]