Friday, January 07, 2005
Medicaid care management program pays off in Florida
[Susan Konig, "Florida, Pfizer Team up to Improve Medicaid Patients' Use of Health Services," Health Care News, The Heartland Institute, 1 January 2005.]
The state of Florida recently took a gamble that by spending more time tracking Medicaid beneficiary drug use, the program could end up spending less. The decision is reaping rewards both in terms of budget savings and improved health outcomes:
The State of Florida and Pfizer Inc. announced in November they have contacted nearly 150,000 Medicaid beneficiaries with serious medical conditions and worked to monitor and improve their health through the Florida: A Healthy State program. When the program was launched in 2001, it was expected to reach just 50,000 Medicaid beneficiaries.
The program provides innovative patient education and nursing care to high-risk, targeted Medicaid patients through a statewide network of community hospitals, civic organizations, and patients' advocate groups. It cut the growth in Florida's medical costs by $41.9 million during a 27-month period ending in September 2003, according to Medical Scientists Inc., an independent organization that examined the results of the program. The firm's report was released November 9.
In addition, the state government received about $19.2 million in Pfizer investments and medicines donated by the firm. In all, the program generated $2.18 of medical claims reductions for each dollar invested in the program, according to the Medical Scientists report.
"I personally see the impact this program continues to have on the lives of real people in our community every day," said Michael L. Howell, MD, MBA, medical director of Florida: A Healthy State. "Patients are able to learn the tools necessary to adequately manage their chronic illnesses in ways that emergency rooms and acute inpatient hospital stays can never achieve. And it is because of the personal level of the training and the learning processes that this program is able to succeed."
[Susan Konig, "Florida, Pfizer Team up to Improve Medicaid Patients' Use of Health Services," Health Care News, The Heartland Institute, 1 January 2005.]
The state of Florida recently took a gamble that by spending more time tracking Medicaid beneficiary drug use, the program could end up spending less. The decision is reaping rewards both in terms of budget savings and improved health outcomes:
The State of Florida and Pfizer Inc. announced in November they have contacted nearly 150,000 Medicaid beneficiaries with serious medical conditions and worked to monitor and improve their health through the Florida: A Healthy State program. When the program was launched in 2001, it was expected to reach just 50,000 Medicaid beneficiaries.
The program provides innovative patient education and nursing care to high-risk, targeted Medicaid patients through a statewide network of community hospitals, civic organizations, and patients' advocate groups. It cut the growth in Florida's medical costs by $41.9 million during a 27-month period ending in September 2003, according to Medical Scientists Inc., an independent organization that examined the results of the program. The firm's report was released November 9.
In addition, the state government received about $19.2 million in Pfizer investments and medicines donated by the firm. In all, the program generated $2.18 of medical claims reductions for each dollar invested in the program, according to the Medical Scientists report.
"I personally see the impact this program continues to have on the lives of real people in our community every day," said Michael L. Howell, MD, MBA, medical director of Florida: A Healthy State. "Patients are able to learn the tools necessary to adequately manage their chronic illnesses in ways that emergency rooms and acute inpatient hospital stays can never achieve. And it is because of the personal level of the training and the learning processes that this program is able to succeed."
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