Abstract
Disease management has become an important element in the improvement of care for persons with chronic illnesses and has become embedded in the health political discussion over recent years. Quite different approaches have been introduced in different countries throughout the world. Accredited disease management programs (DMPs) have been part of the risk structure compensation scheme of the German statutory health insurance since 1 January 2003. This is seen as the first step towards morbidity orientation in the risk structure compensation. DMPs must be evaluated according to German Social Law, especially as to whether the objectives of the programs and the criteria for inclusion of the patients have been met and the quality of care for the patients has been insured. The criteria for evaluation are threefold: medical issues, economic issues, and patients’ subjective quality of life. As an immense quantity of data can be expected, the evaluation of the German DMPs is a huge logistical challenge. The quality of the data has been subjected to only little analysis. The present study focuses on the perspective of the health insurance funds as information about indirect costs is not covered. We discuss the methods of evaluation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hunter DJ, Fairfield G (1997) Disease management. BMJ 315:50–53
Preuss KJ (2001) Gesundheitsökonomie und Managed Care [Health economics and managed care]. In: Lauterbach KW, Schrappe M (eds) Gesundheitsökonomie, Qualitätsmanagement und Evidence-Based Medicine—eine systematische Einführung [Health economics, quality management and evidence-based medicine—a systematic introduction]. Schattauer: Stuttgart, pp 220–238
Lauterbach KW (1999) Was trägt die Medizin zu den Methoden der Gesundheitssystemforschung bei? [What does medicine contribute to the methods of health system research?]. In: König H-H, Graf von Stillfried D (eds) Gesundheitssystemforschung in Wissenschaft und Praxis-Beiträge zum Stand eines multidisziplinären Forschungsgebiets [Health system research In science and in practice—contributions on the state of a multidisciplinary research area]. Schattauer: Stuttgart, pp 33–43
Chang K, Nash D (1998) The role of pharmacoeconomic evaluations in disease management. Pharmacoeconomics 14:11–17
Maynard A, McDaid D (2003) Evaluating health interventions—exploiting the potential. Health Policy 63:215–226
McDaid D, Cookson R (2003) Evaluating health care interventions in the European Union. Health Policy 63:133–139
Greiner W (1999) Ökonomische Evaluationen von Gesundheitsleistungen-Fragestellungen, Methoden und Grenzen dargestellt am Beispiel der Transplantationsmedizin, Reihe Gesundheitsökonomische Beiträge [Economic evaluation of health services—questions, methods and limitations: the example of transplantation medicine]. In: Gäfgen G, Oberender P (eds) series on issues in health economics, vol 31. Nomos: Baden-Baden
Weingarten SR et al. (2002) Interventions used in disease management programs for patients with chronic illness-which ones work? Meta-analysis of published reports. BMJ 325:925–932
Neuffer AB (1997) Managed care—Umsetzbarkeit des Konzeptes im deutschen Gesundheitssystem. In: Schriften zur Gesundheitsökonomie [Managed care—implementation of the concept in the German health system, writings on health economics], vol 21. PCO: Bayreuth
Leidl R (1999) Was leisten ökonomische Methoden in der Gesundheitssystemforschung? [What is the use of economic methods in health service management?]. In: König H-H, Graf von Stillfried D (eds) Gesundheitssystemforschung in Wissenschaft und Praxis-Beiträge zum Stand eines multidisziplinären Forschungsgebiets [Health System Research In Science and in Practice—Contributions on the State of a Multidisciplinary Research Area]. Schattauer: Stuttgart, pp 24–32
Hajen L, Paetow H, Schumacher H (2000) Gesundheitsökonomie (Strukturen–Methoden–Praxisbeispiele) [Health Economics (Structure–Methods–Practical Examples)]. Kohlhammer: Stuttgart
Clewer A, Perkins D (1998) Economics for health care management. Pearson Education: Harlow
Cookson R, Hutton J (2003) Regulating the economic evaluation of pharmaceuticals and medical devices—a European perspective. Health Policy 63:167–178
Petro W et al. (2005) Effizienz eines Disease Management Programs bei Asthma [Effectiveness of a disease management program in asthma]. Pneumologie 59:101–107
Greiner W et al. (2003) A single european currency for EQ-5D health states. Results from six-country study. Eur J Health Econ 4:222–231
Schöffski O, Greiner W (2000) Das QALY-Konzept zur Verknüpfung von Lebensqualitätseffekten mit ökonomischen Daten [The QALY concept for linkage of quality of life effects with economic data]. In: Schöffski, O, Graf von der Schulenburg J-M (eds) Gesundheits-ökonomische Evaluationen—Grundlagen und Standortbestimmung [Health economic evaluations—principles and site determination], 2nd edn. Springer: Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 367–399
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Greiner, W. Health economic evaluation of disease management programs. Eur J Health Econ 6, 191–196 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-005-0305-2
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-005-0305-2