Reduce crushing costs

"Certainly having more people with healthcare coverage is going to help keep costs down in one regard, but better management of chronic conditions and prevention of chronic conditions will be crucial to the future of healthcare delivery," Moorhead says. "There are a number of things that are coming together to do that. One is better reimbursement for those types of services. Another is expansion of the healthcare team beyond just the physician."

DMAA advances the emerging population-health-management (PHM) model, which expands on the traditional practice of disease management, reaching out to a broader range of individuals and intervening earlier to prevent or reduce disease-and the associated profit-crushing costs. Delivered through a variety of outreach techniques across the whole spectrum of care, PHM combines prevention and management to create a recipe for bending the cost curve, she says.

DMAA, based in Washington, D.C., is the industry's resource center of population health management strategies. Its 200 members include health plans, employers, government programs and agencies, carve-outs, providers and researchers. Conducting its own original research, DMAA collaborates on industry standards and makes national policy recommendations.