BACKGROUND: In the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, Congress required the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to test the commercial disease-management model in the Medicare fee-for-service program. METHODS: The Medicare Health Support Pilot Program was a large, randomized study of eight commercial programs for disease management that used nurse-based call centers. We randomly assigned patients with heart failure, diabetes, or both to theintervention or to usual care (control) and compared them with the use of a difference-in-differences method to evaluate the effects of the commercial programs on the quality of clinical care, acute care utilization, and Medicare expenditures for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. RESULTS: The study included 242,417 patients (163,107 in the intervention group and 79,310 in the control group). The eight commercial disease-management programs did not reduce hospital admissions or emergency room visits, as compared with usual care. We observed only 14 significant improvements in process-of-care measures out of 40 comparisons. These modest improvements came at substantial cost to the Medicare program in fees paid to the disease-management companies ($400 million), with no demonstrable savings in Medicare expenditures. CONCLUSIONS: In this large study, commercial disease-management programs using nurse-based call centers achieved only modest improvements in quality-of-care measures, with no demonstrable reduction in the utilization of acute care or the costs of care.
RCT Entities:
BACKGROUND: In the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, Congress required the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to test the commercial disease-management model in the Medicare fee-for-service program. METHODS: The Medicare Health Support Pilot Program was a large, randomized study of eight commercial programs for disease management that used nurse-based call centers. We randomly assigned patients with heart failure, diabetes, or both to the intervention or to usual care (control) and compared them with the use of a difference-in-differences method to evaluate the effects of the commercial programs on the quality of clinical care, acute care utilization, and Medicare expenditures for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. RESULTS: The study included 242,417 patients (163,107 in the intervention group and 79,310 in the control group). The eight commercial disease-management programs did not reduce hospital admissions or emergency room visits, as compared with usual care. We observed only 14 significant improvements in process-of-care measures out of 40 comparisons. These modest improvements came at substantial cost to the Medicare program in fees paid to the disease-management companies ($400 million), with no demonstrable savings in Medicare expenditures. CONCLUSIONS: In this large study, commercial disease-management programs using nurse-based call centers achieved only modest improvements in quality-of-care measures, with no demonstrable reduction in the utilization of acute care or the costs of care.
Authors: Barry L Carter; Barcey Levy; Brian Gryzlak; Yinghui Xu; Elizabeth Chrischilles; Jeffrey Dawson; Mark Vander Weg; Alan Christensen; Paul James; Linnea Polgreen Journal: Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes Date: 2018-06
Authors: David Edelman; Rowena J Dolor; Cynthia J Coffman; Katherine C Pereira; Bradi B Granger; Jennifer H Lindquist; Alice M Neary; Amy J Harris; Hayden B Bosworth Journal: J Gen Intern Med Date: 2015-01-08 Impact factor: 5.128
Authors: Paul A Fishman; Eric A Johnson; Kathryn Coleman; Eric B Larson; Clarissa Hsu; Tyler R Ross; David Liss; James Tufano; Robert J Reid Journal: Gerontologist Date: 2012-03-15