This session will expose participants to leading-edge solutions in non-pharmaceutical pain management. The scientific foundations and clinical value of sequential electrical stimulation, as well as explore cost savings and compliance issues, will be discussed. Our experience will be shared involving an innovative three-month initiative, and addressing pain management in a Medicare sub-population of the sickest sick--that 5% of the Medicare population who account for 43.1% of the annual Medicare budget. The sequelae of narcotic use and unmanaged pain are among the most prominent, unmet elements in care delivery for this population.
Part of the reason Medicare beneficiaries, with multiple chronic conditions, account for such a disproportionate share of Medicare spending--compared to their representation in the overall Medicare population--is due to poorly coordinated care, including conflicting information from health providers and different diagnoses of the same symptoms. People with chronic conditions account for 76 percent of all hospital admissions, 88 percent of all prescriptions filled, and 72 percent of physician services. The case management implications are enormously important; and open up new opportunities for collaboration, data collection cost savings, reduced morbidity, and measurement of outcomes.
We will introduce the attendee to intricacies of sequential electrical stimulation (interferential and sequential neuro-muscular stimulation) for managing pain and reducing sequelae attendant to NSAIDS and opiates for chronically ill patients. We can also explore implications of changing trends in how Medicare reimbursement, payment, and coverage are moving, In fact, both Medical Home and Independence At-Home models create substantial incentives to develop methods and technologies for providing better and lower cost health care solutions to the highest cost Medicare beneficiaries with the greatest incentives provided in the case of highest cost beneficiaries suffering from multiple chronic conditions.
Providing at-home pain management solutions in concert with coordinated, primary care services in lower-cost treatment settings, under a plan of care developed by a team of qualified and experienced health care professionals, to contain health care costs without adverse health care consequences is an attractive option and care management opportunity.