Philadelphia - Disease management programs are struggling to save money, according to a recent study of 24 programs by Autumn Dawn Galbreath, MD, director of the University of Texas Disease Management Center.

Although analysis of the two-dozen previously published studies failed to track or show many financial benefits of disease management programs, the discipline does show signs of providing better care to its enrollees, especially in hospital re-admissions among CHF patients and glucose control for diabetics, Dr. Galbreath said at The National Academy for State Health Policy's 15th annual state health policy conference.

Guaranteed savings. The scrutiny comes at a time when many state governments are considering disease management as a part of their Medicaid reform, potentially "poisoning the well for state governments to look at this approach in Medicaid," says Al Lewis, executive director of the Disease Management Purchasing Consortium & Advisory Council, which has 68 health plan members.

"The fact is that savings are guaranteed, and the guarantees are achieved 90% of the time by the leading vendors," Lewis says.

"If the vendors really didn't achieve these guarantees, then they would all be bankrupt. Instead, the industry is growing at about 30% a year," he says.