The American journal of managed care
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In April 2018, CMS began reimbursing both clinical and community settings for providing the CDC-recognized Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) to eligible Medicare beneficiaries. To better understand the process of offering the program to Medicare beneficiaries, we interviewed relevant stakeholders in a large, integrated health care delivery system. ⋯ Although the reimbursement of DPP for Medicare beneficiaries was a landmark decision, the current structure and requirements make it difficult for health systems and community-based providers to implement and promote this benefit. This study highlights the challenges that even integrated health systems are facing to implement MDPP, as well as potential strategies to overcome these barriers and expand the reach of the program. Medicare should seek ways to increase the financial incentives and decrease the barriers associated with implementing MDPP.
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This letter describes the experience of long-stay patients and provides a perspective of the need for more studies on outliers' impact on health care.
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HealthPartners developed a checklist, the School Environment Index (SEI), that it uses to help elementary schools identify opportunities to improve student nutrition and increase physical activity. The objective in this pilot study was to assess whether the SEI, as administered, can be used to measure the progress of these programs. ⋯ The SEI shows adequate internal consistency and sensitivity to change in this pilot evaluation. It is also feasible and useful to identify opportunities to improve practices and policies related to student nutrition and physical activity in partnership with the participating elementary schools. However, it lacks reliability as used. Increasing the number of respondents per school might moderate the impact of individual respondents and thereby increase reliability.
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This study examines 14 independent and diverse health care interventions funded under the second round of Health Care Innovation Awards by CMS to determine if any organizational, model, or implementation features were strongly associated with the programs' estimated impacts on total expenditures, hospitalizations, or emergency department visits. ⋯ Innovative health care service delivery models with 2 or more of these 7 identified features were more likely than programs without them to reduce Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries' needs for costly health care services.
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The authors share a model that facilitates patient-centered care and can be adopted by other health systems to encourage successful care transitions for the traveling patient.