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The Milbank Quarterly
"The Indiana Chronic Disease Management Program"
The Indiana Chronic Disease Management Program, a program designed to coordinate care for Medicaid beneficiaries with chronic conditions including asthma, congestive heart failure and diabetes, could serve as a model for other states' disease management programs, researchers said.
Components of ICDMP include:
- Regional registries of participants to track and coordinate patients' care;
- Risk assessment, to determine a participant's likelihood of utilizing care;
- Nurse care management to coordinate and facilitate care for the highest-risk patients;
- Telephone management to facilitate care for all patients; and
- Information systems to track patients and provide care reminders for providers.
Researchers found several barriers to administering ICDMP, including identifying patients most likely to benefit from the program and finding ways to establish the program statewide.
Researchers concluded that state-managed programs such as ICDMP might improve the quality of care for at-risk populations by increasing the self-management of chronic diseases by patients, among other benefits. The program eventually could lead to cost savings though better health outcomes, according to researchers.
The paper was written by researchers from:
- The Regenstrief Institute;
- Indiana University;
- Purdue University; and
- The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (Rosenman et al., The Milbank Quarterly, Q1 2006).