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Practice management companies are becoming more prominent players in the health care industry. To improve the performance of the group practices that they acquire, these companies are striving to use updated information technologies.
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OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine if birth outcomes for Medicaid recipients were improved with participation in the Illinois Family Case Management Program. METHODS: Health program data files were linked with the 1996 Illinois Vital Records linked birth-death certificate file. Logistic regression was used to characterize the variation in birth outcomes as a function of Family Case Management participation while statistically controlling for measurable factors found to be confounders. RESULTS: Results of the logistic regression analysis show that women who participated in the Family Care Management Program were significantly less likely to give birth to very low birth weight infants (odds ratio [OR] = 0.86, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.75, 0.99) and low birth weight infants (OR = 0.83, CI = 0.79, 0.89). For infant mortality, however, the adjusted OR (OR = 0.98, CI = 0.82, 1.17), although under 1, was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the Family Case Management Program may be effective in reducing very low birth weight and low birth weight rates among infants born to low-income women.
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Sweeping changes to the Medicare program embodied in the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), including a new prescription drug benefit, changes in payment policies, and reform of the Medicare managed-care program, have major implications for rural health care. The most efficient mechanism for research to affect policy is to provide policy makers with information on issues about which they have voiced concern. The Rural Policy Research Institute's Health Panel conducted 2 focus groups with 16 congressional staff in September 2004 to identify a set of researchable questions concerning the impact of the MMA on rural health care. This paper presents research questions in the following areas that staff identified as having the highest priority: access to health plans and pharmacy services, beneficiary outreach and enrollment, technology capacity, provider payment policy, and demonstration projects.
Managed care organizations in a highly competitive environment constantly face the pressure of improving their financial performance. At the same time, customers of the organization expect the organization to deliver high-quality outcomes and improve customer service. Payers expect the organization to develop innovative new products to meet their needs. This article presents an approach called "Balanced Scorecard" for measurement, development of strategy, and performance improvement in a managed care organization.
Over the past half century scientific data support the strong relationship between the way a person or population lives and their risk for developing or dying from cardiovascular disease (CVD). While heredity can be a major factor for some people, their personal health habits and environmental/cultural exposure are more important factors. CVD is a multifactor process that is contributed to by a variety of biological and behavioral characteristics of the person including a number of well-established and emerging risk factors. Not smoking, being physically active, eating a heart healthy diet, staying reasonably lean, and avoiding major stress and depression are the major components of an effective CVD prevention program. For people at high risk of CVD, medications frequently need to be added to a healthy lifestyle to minimize their risk of a heart attack or stroke, particularly in persons with conditions such as hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, or hyperglycemia. Maintaining an effective CVD prevention program in technologically advanced societies cannot be achieved by many high-risk persons without effective and sustained support from a well-organized health care system. Nurse-provided or nurse-coordinated care management programs using an integrated or multifactor approach have been highly effective in reducing CVD morbidity and mortality of high-risk persons.
Quality screening and management (QSM), developed by United HealthCare Corporation for its own health plans but applicable to other settings, analyzes health care provided to an enrolled population using claims and administrative data supplemented, when necessary, with medical record review. For selected topics/conditions, QSM compares the care received by patients to that recommended by established practice guidelines and also reports and describes quality through incidence rates, condition-specific process and outcome measures, occurrence of adverse events, and use of preventive services. Results of the analyses are linked to appropriate quality management actions and are used to identify strategies for improvement. Data permit health plans to make performance comparisons on individual indicators and longitudinal comparisons on the effectiveness of quality improvement initiatives.
This article describes 4 years of TQM implementation at Bethesda, Inc., a private not-for-profit diversified healthcare organization. Bethesda has used a comprehensive implementation strategy involving the use of process improvement teams, hoshin planning, daily management of critical processes, and quality function deployment. The article includes four process improvement case studies demonstrating the use of the seven quality control tools and a nine-step process improvement model. Factors contributing to processes as well as obstacles are described.
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Dental sealants are a safe and efficacious method for preventing caries in pits and fissures. An increase in sealant use has been observed in the NHANES III survey. However this increase still accounts for less than one fifth of children aged 5-17 having sealants on their teeth. Reimbursement and coverage of sealants by public and private insurance programs have lagged behind the widespread acceptance of this methodology by the profession. Medicaid preventive services are poorly used by patients and the profession: and the inclusion of sealants in traditional, indemnity, fee-for-service commercial plans has been inconsistent. Managed care programs include dental sealants, but lack financial incentives to increase their use.
Quarterly monitoring reports, customized patient summary sheets, and care management programs are only a few of the innovative measures taken to improve the outcomes of patients in a population-based heart failure program.
How does one even begin to choose the right data management firm from among the hundreds now selling health care utilization/cost analyses? No objective selection criteria were available when 10 American Electronics Association member companies joined to develop a data system, so they devised their own comprehensive vendor evaluation guidelines. The AEA's Health Care Program Manager shares these criteria, describes how they were applied and tells the results of the Association's selection.
This paper is the second version of a working document developed to explore opportunities and difficulties in the national shift to managed care in the public sector. Leaders in the public and private sectors continue their collaboration in contributing new models of integration that preserve the best of the public system but challenge the field to combine social mission with good business practice. The first version was developed by the American Managed Behavioral Healthcare Association and the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors. This document, developed by AMBHA, NASMHPD, the National Association of County Behavioral Health Directors, and the National Council of Community Mental Health Centers, expands on the first white paper, published here in October 1995, and is based on developing issues and concerns in public sector managed behavioral healthcare. This paper is not intended to represent prescriptive standards but rather to articulate "best practice" in an area that continually changes as public payors privatize significantly larger portions of public mental health. In April 1996, Behavioral Healthcare Tomorrow published a response from the consumer advocacy perspective, and the ideas presented in this paper remain open to input and discussion.
Reports completed in 1988 by the Navy Inspector General and a Blue Ribbon Panel evaluated Navy medicine. They found serious problems and expressed dissatisfaction with both the organization and effectiveness of management. These findings formed the basis for a reorganization that was recommended to the Vice Chief of Naval Operations. A program of managed care was proposed to help control costs. The reorganization establishes a partnership between line officers, who will have command over medical facilities, and a more specialized healthcare establishment that will focus on resource planning and providing quality care.
Although many long-term care (LTC) programs assume that the disabilities of their frail elderly participants are stable in nature, there has been suggestive evidence to the contrary. This study tests stability of disability among social/health maintenance organization (S/HMO) members who were judged eligible for admission into a nursing home. Identified persons were reassessed quarterly. By the end of 1 year, less than 50 percent were still considered to be nursing home eligible. Logit analysis revealed an increased likelihood of instability for persons who were newly identified as functionally disabled after hospitalization. Policy implications for capitated managed-care programs for the elderly are discussed.
STUDY OBJECTIVES: To analyze the influence of a hospital-based home-care program (HCP) on the management of patients with COPD receiving long-term oxygen therapy. DESIGN AND SETTING: Randomized, controlled study in a 1,000-bed university hospital. INTERVENTION: The HCP applied to patients in the intervention group (HCP group) consisted of a monthly telephone call, home visits every 3 months, and home or hospital visits on a demand basis. Patients in the control group were given conventional medical care. MEASUREMENTS: Pulmonary function data, gas exchange, use of hospital resources (emergency department visits, admissions, and hospital stay) and the cost of medical assistance were investigated in both groups before and after 1 year of study. Quality of life was analyzed using the chronic respiratory questionnaire in the first 40 consecutive patients included in the study. Survival throughout the study was also assessed. RESULTS: One hundred twenty-two patients were enrolled in the study, and 94 patients (46 in the HCP group and 48 in the control group) completed the 1-year follow-up period: 83 patients (88%) were men, and mean (+/- SD) age was 68 +/- 8 years. During the follow-up period, there was a highly significant decrease in the mean number of emergency department visits (0.45 +/- 0.83 vs 1.58 +/- 1.96; p = 0.0001) and also a significant decrease in hospital admissions (0.5 +/- 0.86 vs 1.29 +/- 1.7; p = 0.001) and days of hospital stay (7.43 +/- 15.6 vs 18.2 +/- 24.5; p = 0.01) in the HCP group. Patients in the intervention group required a total of 221 home visits (mean per patient, 4.8 +/- 0.8) and 69 hospital visits (mean per patient, 1.5 +/- 1.07). In spite of the cost of the program, cost analysis showed a total saving of 8.1 million pesetas ($46,823) in the HCP group, mainly due to a decrease in the use of hospital resources. There was no difference in pulmonary function, gas exchange, quality of life, and survival between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Hospital-based home care is an effective alternative to hospital admission. It reduces the use of hospital resources and the cost of health care.