6/13/13

The Power of Case Management & Other Interesting "Facts"

The following article has some great data on how case management has had an impact on long-term costs and increased health.

It is different than our programs because we are very injury specific, and their's is more preventative of chronic issues, but the goal of targeting high-risk people and intervening proactively for better results is the same.

The article also shows how people's health issues have changed over the last 100 years.

Unfortunately ​I often see people throw around healthcare "facts," based on data that provides little justification or poor logic behind the facts. One that has always bothered me is the "increase in cancer and chronic disease" rates I often hear cited.  I often hear the facts cited go back many, many years to justify the increases.  For example, I have heard people cite long-term increases in "cancer" over the last century as "proof" our environment or food is way worse than in the past.

My problem with this is that life expectancy has gone up dramatically in the last 100 years.   Life expectancy was about 45 at the turn of the century.  Even in the 1960s, it was about 65.  Almost nobody lived long enough to get "chronic" diseases.  If they did, there was often no diagnosis or central record keeping so the data from back then would be inaccurate or understated.  Therefore, any data citing increases in diseases over a long-term are likely meaningless.

I am not AT ALL saying that there are no environmental issues we need to worry about. However, people should just take a critical look at the data first before presenting a problem or solution.

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