Challenging the Status Quo in Chronic Disease Care: Seven Case Studies


 

Publication Date: September 2006

Publisher: California HealthCare Foundation

Author(s): Robert A. Berenson

Research Area: Health

Type: Report

Abstract:

Physicians often lack the time, resources, and financial incentives to systematically improve the quality of care for patients with chronic conditions. They must also contend with barriers to innovation, like traditional Medicare payment policies that pay for treating acute problems rather than serious underlying conditions. This report features case studies of seven strategies for managing and improving chronic disease care. It examines unique, provider-based strategies that fall outside the prototypical models of disease management and clinic-based chronic care. The report looks at the benefits, limitations, and policy implications of these alternative approaches. Researchers had two main objectives: to identify provider-based approaches to chronic disease care that realistically consider what physicians are willing and able to do to modify their practices; and to better explain the barriers to innovation and how exemplary organizations managed those challenges.