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Medicare/Care Coordination
POE Award: Linda Magno of CMS Acknowledges the Elephant in the Room with Medicare DM
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 Ms. Magno’s presentation at the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative Summit on November 7:
Disease Management and the Medicare Health Support (MHS) Project: “Houston, we have a problem.”
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 trial process employed in MHS would provide scientific evidence to prove that DM has a positive ROI, clearing the way for unqualified acceptance and widespread […]
Teleconference — New Health Plan Strategies for Disease Management: Lessons Learned From the Medicare Health Support Pilot
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 of the Disease Management Association of America (DMAA).
JEAN BISIO, CEO of Green Ribbon Health LLC, a joint-venture company created by Humana Inc. and Pfizer Inc. […]
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 this an important topic? Here’s the big picture:
Current chronic disease management demonstration/pilot projects in Medicare are showing little evidence of success.
Physicians have woken up to […]
First “Official” Report on Medicare Health Support DM Pilot Finds Virtually No Evidence of Success
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:
Mathematica Researchers Summarize Disappointing Results Across 4 Medicare DM Demonstrations
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 cut to the chase:
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 us, 5% of seniors account for 50% of costs
baby boomers hit the fan in 2010
note to self — drop the cheeseburger at lunch
3) solve primary […]
Physician EHR Implementation Is Doggone Difficult
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 Physician Focused Quality Initiative. DOQ-IT U is an interactive, Web-based tool designed to provide solo and small-to-medium sized physician practices with the education for successful […]
Medicare and DM: Synthesis in 500 Words
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 at Hospital Impact
Emily Devoto at The Antidote: Counterspin for Health Care and Health News
Matthew Holt at The Health Care Blog
Derek Lowe at In the […]
Yet Another Dark Cloud in the Stormy Skies of Medicare DM
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 explain it, you’re a lot smarter than I am:
The recently received sixth quarterly CMS report for the MHS pilots continued to cumulatively […]