DMAA White Paper Examines Commonalities of Medical Home, Population Health

PR Log (Press Release) – Oct 21, 2008 – WASHINGTON, D.C.--Chronic disease management programs offer physician practices a path to national recognition as a medical home--especially smaller practices unable to invest in the health information technology necessary for recognition, DMAA: The Care Continuum Alliance suggests in a new white paper.

"In fact, if based on the underlying principles used to create each of the standard sets, it can be argued that the integration of an NCQA-accredited disease management organization in a physician practice supports every one of the elements" in National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) medical home criteria, DMAA says in the paper, "The Medical Home and Population Health Improvement: Common Ground."

DMAA compares side-by-side the criteria for NCQA "Physician Practice Connections--Patient-Centered Medical Home" (PPC-PCMH) recognition and that used for NCQA Disease Management Accreditation. The paper notes significant overlap between the IT resources required for disease management accreditation and those for medical home recognition.

"This analysis suggests that adoption of a typical disease management organization's IT process could theoretically fulfill more than half the points necessary to achieve PPC-PCMH recognition," DMAA says.

"Population health improvement strategies, such as disease management, provide significant support for the patient-centered medical home," DMAA President and CEO Tracey Moorhead says. "Combined, the complementary strengths of the medical home and population health improvement translate to improved health outcomes and a cost-effective approach to chronic condition care in a physician practice."

The white paper offers a brief history of both the medical home and disease management and finds many common features in addition to use of IT: Both emphasize a population-based approach; accept responsibility for clinical and financial outcomes; rely on evidence-based clinical guidelines; embrace the value of non-physician health care providers, such as case managers; and promote patient self-management.

"Physicians who rely on NCQA-accredited disease management organizations have long understood the valuable contributions these collaborative programs make to the care of chronically ill patients," says Jaan Sidorov, MD, a former DMAA Board member who authored the white paper. "This paper adds context by helping physicians and patients compare and contrast the NCQA standards for disease management with those for medical home recognition."

DMAA recommends that the "under-recognized overlap" in disease management accreditation and medical home recognition be further examined to determine if "cross-recognition" or accreditation is possible and whether the overlapping elements can be used to evaluate the merits of a combined care approach to the cost and quality challenges of chronic illnesses.

DMAA has made the white paper available for download on its Web site, www.dmaa.org.