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This monthly newsletter features insightful coverage and practical tools that you can put to work immediately in your disease management program.

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Population Health Insider

Issue 12, December 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE | A PDF OF THE FULL ISSUE

• Care managers affect worker productivity

  Depression intervention with care managers can improve employee productivity and save employers...

• Value-based option improves medication compliance

  Passing on costs to consumers may help the bottom line in the short term, but a growing number of...

• DM program cuts readmission days

  An advanced practice nursing program with a DM component has been shown to reduce the number of...

Issue 11, November 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE | A PDF OF THE FULL ISSUE

• Data collection important step in fight against racial, ethnic disparities

  Racial and ethnic disparities in health are costing lives and money as minorities face barriers to...

• Physician-focused option shows savings

  CMS' first pay-for-performance initiative for physicians within the Medicare program is turning the...

• Physician support critical for DM

  A supportive physician backing a DM program can often be the difference between success and a lost...

Issue 10, October 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE | A PDF OF THE FULL ISSUE

• Gaps in care are common in high-risk patients

  Numerous studies have shown that it is difficult to produce both clinical and financial results...

• Blending mental healthcare and traditional models

  For reasons that are not entirely clear, HF patients with depression have significantly worse...

• Alternative procedures for prostate cancer

  Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men, with more than 234,000 new cases...

• Advocates make the case for expansion of CHC system

  Although no single initiative can effectively blunt spiraling healthcare costs in this country, at...

Issue 8, August 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE | A PDF OF THE FULL ISSUE

• Incentives: Experts weigh the expense against improved participation

  In increasing numbers, employers and health plans are experimenting with the use of incentives to...

• Family-based intervention produces solid outcomes in tackling childhood obesity

  Many experts agree that the most effective route to curbing the epidemic of obesity in this country...

• New program quantifies risk in terms that get attention

  Although health risk assessments (HRA) are an important tool in determining the overall risk...

• Analysis sparks new debate about current HIV screening recommendations

  When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) dramatically broadened its HIV screening...

Issue 7, July 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE | A PDF OF THE FULL ISSUE

• DM programming moves from the Internet to mobile phones for added impact

  One of the primary keys to effectively managing chronic disease is getting patients to the point at...

• New centers aim to provide DM-style, multidisciplinary care for ADD/ADHD

  The conditions most often referred to as attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit...

• Medicaid programs find room for improvement in complex patient populations

  Aged, blind, and disabled (ABD) Medicaid beneficiaries are among the most complicated and expensive...

• Broad-based coalition aims to make chronic disease a top priority

  Chronic disease is taking a devastating toll on this country, causing seven of every 10 deaths and...

Issue 6, June 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE | A PDF OF THE FULL ISSUE

• Missouri aims to transform care of chronically ill Medicaid recipients

  Missouri's Division of Medical Services is implementing a new program that attempts to leverage the...

• CMS readies a bold new demonstration aimed at putting the focus on prevention

  Sometime this summer CMS will announce which five vendors it has selected to participate in its...

• Potential new options for lung cancer screening

  One of the more pressing concerns in medicine these days is the need for an effective screening...

• Program aims to leverage skills of community pharmacists to boost diabetes care

  There is no question that caring for diabetic patients puts a strain on the time and resources...

Issue 5, May 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE | A PDF OF THE FULL ISSUE

• Telemedicine offers new alternatives for behavioral healthcare delivery

  It took several years for the Fuqua Center for Late-Life Depression at Emory University in Atlanta...

• Surefire strategies to boost DM enrollment and retention

  Getting and keeping patients enrolled in DM programs has always been a challenge. But the advent of...

• Aggressive outreach and intervention deliver major dividends for pregnant women

  Pregnancy-related care is a huge cost driver for most Medicaid healthcare organizations. High-risk...

• New report calls for action on diabetes and its complications

  A new report is, once again, sounding the alarm about the state of diabetes care in this country...

Issue 4, April 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE | A PDF OF THE FULL ISSUE

• A call to action on health management of populations

  For years, most DM programs have worked by first identifying the members of a population at the...

• New, integrated model of care targets risk rather than disease

  After years of relying primarily on outside vendors to provide DM services, some organizations are...

• Healthcare collaboratives focus QI efforts on every patient

  Quality improvement (QI) is difficult, especially in disadvantaged populations in which financial...

• Alternative models of care get results in diabetic patients

  Care of diabetes in this country is far from optimal. Statistics suggest that only about half of...

Issue 3, March 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE | A PDF OF THE FULL ISSUE

• A traditional model of pregnancy care shows promise for disadvantaged women

  The idea of using community health workers, or nonprofessionals, to provide health-related...

• Specialty pharmacists boost the care and compliance of HIV-infected patients

  A number of studies suggest that pharmacists bring unique contributions to the table in working...

• Care managers have more resources in new Medicaid effort in Florida

  Two years after deciding to discontinue what had been the state's largest Medicaid DM program to...

• The Joint Commission calls for comprehensive action on poor health literacy

  Low health literacy is a much bigger problem than most healthcare professionals realize, affecting...

Issue 2, February 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE | A PDF OF THE FULL ISSUE

• PCPs need to step up their care of patients with CKD

  More than 20 million Americans have chronic kidney disease (CKD), but both patients and providers...

• Research underscores the value of routine HIV screening, but barriers remain

  In a major shift in policy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends...

• Clinic uses chronic care model to tackle diabetes

  Widely viewed as an optimal approach for managing patients with chronic disease, the chronic care...

• Unique approach offers aid to patients with low-prevalence/high-cost conditions

  The idea that psychological health has a significant impact on physical health has gained traction...

Issue 1, January 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE | A PDF OF THE FULL ISSUE

• New-age wound care solutions drive improved efficiency, outcomes

  High-tech documentation solutions not only free up clinicians to spend more time on patient care...

• Opportunities for improvement abound in the care of obstructive lung diseases

  Amid fresh evidence that the quality of care provided to people with obstructive lung diseases such...

• New approaches and unique partnerships take on childhood obesity

  There is little doubt that healthcare policy-makers and providers understand the growing threat...

• Noninvasive approach to diabetes screening and monitoring shows promise

  Diabetes is epidemic in this country, and healthcare professionals understand that early diagnosis...

Issue 9, September 1, 2007 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE | A PDF OF THE FULL ISSUE

• Patient- and provider-focused interventions get results in behavioral health patients

  Studies suggest that nearly half of all physician office visits involve an underlying behavioral...

• Key stakeholders debate the best pathway to healthcare reform

  There is a growing consensus among business and healthcare policy experts that the steep hikes in...

• Bone health may get higher visibility with new approach to fracture risk assessment

  For years, the way providers have assessed the risk of fracture in aging patients is by looking at...

• Tiered approach to chronic pain targets suffering

  Chronic pain, or pain that continues for at least three months, is a key driver of healthcare...