The "Bottom Line" on Disease Management

The disease management blog had the recent pleasure of listening to several managed care medical directors dissect the strengths and weaknesses of the phenom known as "disease management." Leave it to an astute colleague to cut through the clutter with an astute observation:

Say what you will, disease management owes much of its success to being:

• "Simple" (purchasers can easily grasp just what is being offered)

• "Making sense" (nudging health care consumers into good selections has eminent face validity, especially if nurses are involved)

• "Affordable" (comparatively speaking, the PMPM does not sticker shock)

• "Money saving" (the standard of "proof" is different in the health care market, quality has to lead to savings somewhere and see the next point.....)

• "Linked to performance guarantees" (that's real money and still very much the exception compared to the glacial pace of payment reform in the rest of the health care industry).

And who was so smart you ask? An actuary of course! Thank you Ian.