The 5 Principles Of Care Management

The ultimate goal of any medical practitioner is to provide high-quality service which results in better health results without a hefty price tag. Unfortunately, while this is a great idea, often it becomes difficult to practice because there are several stakeholders involved in the patient-care lifecycle, making it next to impossible to align all of them to achieve a seamless experience. Here is where the Care Management viewpoint fits in to smoothen out the creases. 

With value-dependent reimbursement becoming the new buzzword, there is a pronounced need for a centralized entity that has a bird’s eye view of a patient’s fitness trajectory so that it can coordinate with all consulting physicians as well as social work agencies accordingly to not just improve the quality of care but also lower the costs. Care Management is an all-encompassing theory that covers a broad range of activities cutting across a patient’s healthcare journey. It focuses on reducing healthcare costs and improving patient satisfaction by bridging the communication chasm between different providers, cutting down duplicate investigations, enabling patients to monitor and maintain their health, and working towards eliminating socio-economic roadblocks that hamper the patient’s ability to be healthy. Here are some of the main aspects of Care Management: 

1. Recognizing High-cost, High-risk Populations

The most critical task of any care management team is to zero in on individuals that are at a higher risk of developing certain chronic illnesses and chalk out a preventive action plan for them that takes into account their psychological, social and medical backgrounds. 

2. Encouraging Shared Decision Making

When patients are not bulldozed into making decisions based solely on their physician’s opinions they tend to behave more responsibly and follow preventive measures to the T. Care Management teams aim to give patients an equal say in matters related to their health and make them more capable of managing their health. 

3. Coordinating Care

You must have heard patients complain about having to get the same panel of tests run several times when consulting multiple physicians. Such overlap leads to unnecessarily inflated bills and added nuisance regarding wastage of time and effort. Care Management teams form a link between all the necessary players to ensure smoother operations by breaching communication barriers. 

4. Enhanced Patient Outreach 

Being in touch with the patients even after they leave the premises of the healthcare facility helps in averting some dangerous post-discharge complications. Making sure that the patient has understood and adopted any recommended medication alterations, ensuring that the patient is aware of the circumstances in which they should seek emergency medical assistance, and addressing queries and follow-up questions are all tasks that are taken on by care management teams. 

5. Implementing Cost-Effective Health Solutions

By using various healthcare related knowledge repositories including journal publications, treatment histories of patients with similar conditions, research reports, etc. and churning the data gleaned from them using advanced analytics tools, it is possible to shortlist the most cost-effective treatment plans. Data Analytics teams within the Care Management setup are responsible for such projects. 

Read more: A Comprehensive Care Management Model By- Dr. Singh 

Care Management is a patient-centric approach that can help healthcare entities contain costs as well as provide the ongoing support needed before, during and after treatment. Mirra Healthcare is a third-party administrator that employs trained and experienced Care Managers who are adept at handling Care Management functions at healthcare establishments of all sizes. By enlisting Mirra’s Care Management services for your facility, you can be assured of one thing, and that is the ever-growing satisfaction and loyalty of your patients. 

For more information on how you can partner with Mirra and utilize the services in their Medicare in a Box solution, get in touch with us.