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Helping 125 Million Americans: Improving Care for Chronic Conditions


Friday, March 28, 2008

An estimated 125 million individuals in the United States have a chronic illness, disability or functional limitation. Chronic diseases are the number one cause of death and disability in the United States and account for three quarters of the nation’s health spending.

Nearly all of Medicare spending and more than 80 percent of Medicaid spending is attributable to chronic disease. But inadequate information technology, lack of integrated systems of care and financing mechanisms that do not promote care coordination are among the challenges that make chronic care costly and create barriers to ideal treatment.

What models for improving care coordination exist and how can they be more widely implemented? What role will IT play in improving treatment for chronic illnesses? What impact have new technologies had on treatment of chronic care? Is there evidence that improved treatment of chronic care can reduce costs? Or increase costs? This briefing, cosponsored with Novartis and the National Institute for Health Care Management, addresses these and related questions.

Speakers

 Ed Howard, Alliance for Health Reform, Moderator
 David Cutler, Harvard University, Speaker
 Robert Greczyn, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Speaker
 Kenneth Thorpe, Emory University & Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, Speaker
(Click on the camera icon to see a video of the speaker's presentation.)

Transcript, Event Summary and/or Webcast and Podcast

Transcript: Helping 125 Million Americans: Improving Care for Chronic Conditions (Adobe Acrobat PDF), 3/28/2008
Event Summary: Helping 125 Million Americans: Improving Care for Chronic Conditions (Word Document), 3/28/2008
Full Webcast/Podcast: Helping 125 Million Americans: Improving Care for Chronic Conditions
The transcript, full webcast and podcast for this briefing, as well as videos of individual speakers' presentations, are provided by Kaiser Family Foundation.

Speaker Presentations

Kenneth Thorpe Presentation (PowerPoint), 3/28/2008
David Cutler Presentation (PowerPoint), 3/28/2008

(If you want to download one or more slides from these presentations, contact us at info@allhealth or click here for instructions.)

Source Materials

Evidence for the Effect of Disease Management: Is $1 Billion a Year a Good Investment? (Adobe Acrobat PDF), American Journal of Managed Care, 12/1/2007
What is the Business Case for Improving Care for Patients with Complex Conditions? (Adobe Acrobat PDF), Journal of General Internal Medicine, 12/1/2007
Disease Management: Panacea, Another False Hope, or Something in Between? (Adobe Acrobat PDF), Annals of Family Medicine, 5/1/2007
Expert List (Adobe Acrobat PDF), Alliance for Health Reform, 3/28/2008
Speaker Biographies (Adobe Acrobat PDF), Alliance for Health Reform, 3/28/2008
Helping 125 Million Americans: Improving Care for Chronic Conditions (Word Document), Word Document, 3/28/2008

Offsite Materials (briefing documents saved on other websites)

Kenneth Thorpe Testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS... (Adobe Acrobat PDF),, 2/14/2008
An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease (Adobe Acrobat PDF),Milken Institute, 10/1/2007
The Evaluation of the Medicare Coordinated Care Demonstration: Findings for the First Two Years (Adobe Acrobat PDF),Mathematica, 3/21/2007
Enhancing Value in Medicare: Chronic Care Initiatives To Improve the Program (Adobe Acrobat PDF),The Commonwealth Fund, 5/9/2007
Pennsylvania Prepares to Revamp Approach to Chronic Care, American Academy of Family Physicians, 2/20/2008
Prescription for Pennsylvania: Chronic Care Management Strategic Plan (Adobe Acrobat PDF),, 2/1/2008
Coordinating Care - A Perilous Journey through the Health Care System, New England Journal of Medicine, 3/6/2008
Does Preventive Care Save Money? Health Economics and the Presidential Candidates, New England Journal of Medicine, 2/14/2008

Photos

Kenneth Thorpe of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease offers six reasons why chronic disease management should be part of any health reform plan. From our March 28 briefing. If you'd like to follow Dr. Thorpe's PowerPoint slides while watching the video, download them first by clicking here.
Robert Greczyn of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina discusses how insurers can help prevent chronic conditions. From our March 28 briefing.

David Cutler of Harvard explains why managing chronic disease properly makes a big difference in health outcomes. From our March 28 briefing. To follow Dr. Cutler's PowerPoint slides while watching the video, download them first by clicking here.

 

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