National Business Coalition on Health Supports Johns Hopkins' Standard Outcomes Methodology for Disease Management Programs.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

WASHINGTON, D.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 4, 2003

The National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH) today announced its support for the Standard Outcome Metrics and Evaluation Methodology for Disease Management Programs authored by Johns Hopkins and American Healthways, calling it the industry answer to understanding disease management and its true effects on health care and rising health-care costs.

"While disease management has emerged as a viable solution for employers facing rising health care costs and lost productivity, the absence of standard outcomes within the industry has made it difficult to decipher what a quality disease management program looks like," said NBCH board chairman Becky Cherney. "Our support of the Johns Hopkins standard outcomes publication, utilized by American Healthways, gives employers and health plans alike a yardstick by which to measure."

Standard Outcomes Metrics and Evaluation Methodology for Disease Management Programs was published in February following approval from nearly 150 physicians and health care professionals who helped draft the document as part of an annual outcomes conference. Their work represents the first comprehensive set of standards for evaluating the performance of individual disease management programs, as well as for comparison of outcomes from programs with different design and delivery mechanisms.

"We are pleased that NBCH recognizes the importance of having scientifically validated standards in this field as a positive means of helping businesses differentiate among disease management programs," said Christopher B. Forrest, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and director of the university's Center for Population-Based Healthcare Research (CPHR).

CPHR brings together clinicians and research faculty from the Johns Hopkins schools of Medicine, Nursing and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. For more than a century, Johns Hopkins' defining health care mission has been the quest for new knowledge, leading to better health for individuals and societies. Among the world's most well known and highly regarded health care institutions, its faculty annually receives more federal funding for biomedical research than any other U.S. university. For the past 12 years, both the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Bloomberg School of Public Health have received top ranking in U.S. News & World Report surveys.

Last fall, Johns Hopkins partnered with American Healthways - the nation's leading and largest provider of disease management and care enhancement services to health plans, physicians, medical management organizations and hospitals - to assess the efficacy of disease management outcomes against scientifically-based standards.

"Disease management is a relatively young field that is showing great promise as a clinical intervention that may well reduce health care costs and improve patient health," Forrest said. "While many programs are producing early results, it is not always easy to determine on what scientific foundation these results are based, and if the results from one program will be repeated in other programs. The work that went into this document produced a solid baseline for measurement that should put the disease management field on more firm footing with payers, health care providers and, ultimately, patients."

Ben R. Leedle, Jr., president and COO of American Healthways thanked NBCH for its support and noted that the standard outcomes document continues to gain momentum as the industry standard as more organizations have the opportunity to analyze and review it.

NBCH provides expertise, resources and a voice for nearly 90 employer health care coalitions across the U.S. These coalitions represent over 7,000 employers and more than 34 million employees and their families. Employers organize local business coalitions to improve the value of health care. NBCH provides a forum for issue discussion among all health care stakeholders - purchasers, providers, insurers, suppliers, and consumers.