PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Geyman, John P.
TI  - Disease Management: Panacea, Another False Hope, or Something in Between?
AID  - 10.1370/afm.649
DP  - 2007 May 01
TA  - The Annals of Family Medicine
PG  - 257--260
VI  - 5
IP  - 3
4099  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/5/3/257.short
4100  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/5/3/257.full
SO  - Ann Fam Med2007 May 01; 5
AB  - Disease management is being promulgated by many policy makers, legislators, and a burgeoning new disease management industry as the next major hope, together with information technology and consumer-directed health care, to bring cost containment to runaway costs of health care. Many expect quality improvement as well. The concept is being aggressively marketed to employers, health plans, and government in the wake of managed care’s failure to contain costs. There is widespread confusion, however, about what disease management is and what impact it will have on patients, physicians, and the health care system itself. In this article I give a current snapshot of disease management by briefly addressing (1) its rationale and growth, (2) its track record concerning costs and quality of care, and (3) its impacts on primary care.