Diabetes Treatment Centers of America: The Experience of a Carve-In Diabetes Disease Management Program

Abstract

Disease management initiatives have become increasingly popular among managed care plans as they seek to lower costs while satisfying the public's demand for higher quality medical care. By definition, disease management implies a sole orientation toward that one disease. But what if the disease is so complex that it impacts every healthcare condition and in turn every healthcare condition—he common cold to cancer—s it? This is the case with diabetes and one reason why many traditional diabetes disease management approaches have yet to achieve the goal of improved clinical outcomes and lower costs. However, Nashville-based Diabetes Treatment Centers of American (DTCA) takes the complex needs of people with diabetes into account. As a result, the company has been able to show that during the first year of operation, its comprehensive healthcare management program Diabetes NetCare^SM significantly improves quality of care and lowers healthcare costs for this population. The company's success with Diabetes NetCare^SM is the subject of this article.