Washington State To Launch Pilot Disease Management Program for Medicaid Beneficiaries

Washington state is launching a pilot chronic disease management program aimed at improving care and controlling costs under the state's Medicaid program, the Seattle Times reports. The pilot project will use case managers to ensure that Medicaid beneficiaries receive "proven, effective treatments." In addition, case managers will assist providers and beneficiaries in monitoring conditions that could lead to more expensive care if left untreated. For example, case managers will remind beneficiaries with diabetes about the need for annual eye exams or help them control blood sugar levels, Alice Lind, care coordination manager for the state Department of Social and Health Services' Medical Assistance Administration, said. The pilot program will begin April 1 with about 150 to 200 beneficiaries living in Western Washington who have kidney disease. Lind said the program eventually will be expanded to include about 17,000 fee-for-service Medicaid beneficiaries with diabetes, asthma or heart disease (Ostrom, Seattle Times, 3/21).