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Medicare/Care Coordination
Podcast Part Deux: Medicare Health Support in Jeopardy
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.
Medicare Health Support: “Do not go gentle into that good night”
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
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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 of Medicare Health Support (MHS). Dr. Jaan Sidorov’s Disease Management Care Blog reprints the full announcement from the February 12 issue of […]
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 management.
The biggest single contribution of this report is to create a back-of-the-envelope (BOTE) economic model of anticipated costs and benefits from implementing the medical home. […]
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.
Guest Post: The CMS Announcement Of Medicare Health Support Program Cancellation — What It Means For Buyers
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 the remaining months of the three-year measurement period.
Yet even as CMS’ conclusion mirrors that of the Congressional Budget Office, and the RAND Corporation, other organizations and […]
Insufficient Evidence to End Medicare Health Support
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. Â
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 us on how things should be done. In September 2007 Kerry Weems, the new CMS Administrator, declared that “cocktail hour press releases” from his agency […]
$389 M of Healthways’ Market Value Vaporizes After CMS Announcement. What Happened?
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?
CMS: “Rumors of Medicare Health Support’s Death Have Not Been Greatly Exaggerated”
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 project.
While a casual reader would probably review these documents and scratch their head, we interpret them as a death knell for the Medicare Health Support […]
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.Â
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 be about the length I’d use for a 3 hour workshop; you’d see a more compact version for a conference keynote, Board summary, or management […]
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.Â
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 allowing me to share it with you… click here to save or listen to the podcast.
fyi, the DM Megatrends are:
MAGNITUDE: We are just scratching the […]