Care Transformation Center Blog
The insights, tools, and resources you need to take on population health management
by Darby Sullivan and Tomi Ogundimu September 25, 2018
Population health leaders have been investing in chronic disease management efforts for decades, but the management challenge is not getting easier. Today, some providers are integrating IT-based innovations into their care models, including self-management applications and platforms that have measured promising results.
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by Praveena Fernes and Tomi Ogundimu September 20, 2018
In the wake of high-profile hurricanes that have hit the southern United States, population health leaders are increasingly interested in disaster-recovery. Looking back to 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, 41% to 74% of victims had one or more chronic conditions, and continuity of care for these patients was identified as a major health care provision issue in the storm's aftermath.
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by Tomi Ogundimu and Abby Burns September 18, 2018
Patients with two or more chronic diseases account for 93% of Medicare spending, yet few providers have taken advantage of Medicare's fee-for-service mechanism for managing them: chronic care management (CCM) codes. In the program's first year and a half, only 4.5% of eligible primary care providers billed for CCM services. That means that many organizations continue to perform care management activities without being reimbursed.
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by Petra Esseling and Paul Trigonoplos September 11, 2018
This is the fourth blog in a series about care transformation around the globe, where we look at successful population health managers outside the United States. In this post, we highlight the successful partnership between the health system and postal service in States of Jersey, an island off of Great Britain.
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by Darby Sullivan and Tomi Ogundimu September 6, 2018
It's a difficult reality—much of population health department funding relies on external, private donors. Since the most obvious returns for investing in non-traditional, community-based interventions (e.g., housing) do not impact an organization's bottom line revenue, population health leaders must become savvy in using grants to ensure financial longevity. But for some organizations, creating an external funding strategy is still a guessing game and relies mostly on funding from government and other grants.
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by Gina Lohr and Colleen Keenan August 28, 2018
Health care is moving beyond the standard pill or IV as the primary form of medicine and into a new world of molecular medicine. Gene therapies reprogram patients' biology; nanotechnologies manipulate matter at the molecular and atomic scale; and robotics and artificial intelligence create greater than human capabilities.
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Petra Esseling , Peter Kilbridge August 23, 2018
Editor's Note: This blog is a rebroadcast of Here's how 4 organizations are leveraging IT to address social determinants of health, originally posted by Andrew Rebhan and Peter Kilbridge.
On Tuesday, I shared a table outlining key social determinants of health to prioritize for population health programming. When it comes to program development, knowing where to focus is only half the battle—actually identifying patients in need is the other. IT plays a critical role for providers to manage social determinants of health in their patient populations.
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Petra Esseling , Tomi Ogundimu August 21, 2018
Editor's note: This story was updated on August 23, 2018.
There are close to 30 widely accepted social determinants of health, and they are highly intertwined. But provider organizations often lack the time and resources to address them all, so any efforts must be strategically prioritized.
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