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  • February 2019
  • Article
  • Health Economics

Who Benefits Most in Disease Management Programs: Improving Target Efficiency

By: Timothy Simcoe, Maryaline Catillon and Paul Gertler
  • Format:Print
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Abstract

Disease management programs aim to reduce cost by improving the quality of care for chronic diseases. Evidence of their effectiveness is mixed. Reducing health care spending sufficiently to cover program costs has proved particularly challenging. This study uses a difference in differences design to examine the impact of a diabetes disease management program for high risk patients on preventive tests, health outcomes, and cost of care. Heterogeneity is examined along the dimensions of severity (measured using the proxy of poor glycemic control) and preventive testing received in the baseline year. Although disease management programs tend to focus on the sickest, the impact of this program concentrates in the group of people who had not received recommended tests in the preintervention period. If confirmed, such findings are practically important to improve cost-effectiveness in disease management programs by targeting relevant subgroups defined both based on severity and on (missing) test information.

Keywords

Health Economics; Target Efficiency; Diabetes; Disease Management; Program Evaluation; Heterogeneity; Economics; Health; Quality; Health Care and Treatment; Cost Management; Health Industry

Citation

Simcoe, Timothy, Maryaline Catillon, and Paul Gertler. "Who Benefits Most in Disease Management Programs: Improving Target Efficiency." Health Economics 28, no. 2 (February 2019): 189–203.
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More from the Authors
  • Trends and Predictors of Biomedical Research Quality, 1990–2015: A Meta-Research Study By: Maryaline Catillon
  • Two Hundred Years of Health and Medical Care: The Importance of Medical Care for Life Expectancy Gains By: Maryaline Catillon, David Cutler and Thomas Getzen
  • Integrated Care from the Patient's Perspective and its Relationship to Medical Group Attributes. By: Michaela Kerrissey, Jonathan Clark, Ashley-Kay Fryer, Wei Jiang, Maryaline Catillon, Patricia Ramsay, Stephen Shortell, Lawrence Casalino, Mark Friedberg and Sara J. Singer
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