Chronic diseases can be prevented and controlled using available knowledge. Moreover, the solutions are not only effective but can be highly cost-effective. Chronic care model and disease management have emerged, in the last decades, as new models of care delivery. The two models share the objective of improving the quality of care for people with chronic diseases while optimizing health care e...

This DataWatch uses data from the 1993 Employee Health Care Value Survey (EHCVS) to compare the experiences of respondents with and without chronic illnesses under managed care. After controlling for potential confounders, we found that chronic illness was associated with increased odds of dissatisfaction in both independent practice association plans and prepaid group practices, but not under ...

The U.S. chronic illness burden is increasing and is felt more strongly in minority and low-income populations: in 2005, 133 million Americans had at least one chronic condition. Prevention and management of chronic disease are best performed by multidisciplinary teams in primary care and public health. However, the future health care work-force is not projected to include an appropriate mix of...

I t’s no less true for being obvious: Educating and managing patients with chronic conditions is an effective way to stabilize overall health care costs. Now it appears that health plans are beginning to grasp the obvious. “If you can’t manage comorbidities for those patients, there’s no hope of holding down costs,” says Michael Mustille, MD, associate executive director of the Permanente Feder...

W e are currently experiencing in the United Kingdom something of a backlash against the recent assertions that the National Health Service (NHS) has something to learn from the large Health Maintenance Organizations in the United States such as Kaiser. Whatever the arguments about the relevance of comparisons between our systems, the Chronic Care Model (CCM) is a transatlantic development that...

Chronic pain is associated with large societal costs, but few studies have investigated the total costs of chronic pain with respect to elderly subjects. The elderly usually require informal care, care performed by municipalities, and care for chronic diseases, all factors that can result in extensive financial burdens on elderly patients, their families, and the social services provided by the...

PURPOSE The collaborative care model, using care managers, has been shown to be effective in achieving sustained treatment outcomes in chronic disease management. Little effort has been made to find out patient preferences for chronic disease care, hence, we conducted a study aimed at identifying these. METHODS A 20-item questionnaire, asking for patients' and providers' preferences and perce...

Background: The high prevalence of hypertension across the world and its severe effects on various body organs are a major health concern in every community. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of telenursing on the management of self-care behaviors in patients with chronic hypertension. Methods: This randomized clinical trial was conducted on two groups with a pretest-posttest. Th...