Integrated case management: the 21st century challenge for HMO case managers: Part I

As HMOs approach the new millennium, their care and cost management strategies still will be under attack by policy-makers, legislative bodies, the media, American businesses, and the medical professions. The HMO industry will continue to be held accountable for the efficiency of its services, the quality of its care, and the performance and outcome measures that are the results of managing both the care and medical costs of its membership. This first of a two-part series put forward the concept of an integrated CM model to manage the total care of needs of HMO members at the turn of the century. This model consists of three care management approaches commonly used in mature HMOs: demand management, CM, and DM, as illustrated in Figure 1 and defined in Table 1. This article also described the new challenges facing HMOs, physicians, and nurse case managers and how they are navigating the difficult process of mapping demand management and CM approaches to the medical, social, and environmental needs of HMO members. With the costs of chronic conditions consuming 61% of the nation's annual health bill and increased numbers of the elderly joining HMOs, HMOs strongly need to implement DM approaches for economic survival reasons alone. Part two of this series will focus on the newest care management approach: disease state management.