Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Design Issues in a New LTC System Advocates are now discussing "draft" versions of how a new system of Long Term Care might operate.  The construction of the system is critical, because the construction will drive incentives for all the stakeholders , and ultimately how much real choice consumers and their families hve in reconfigured LC. The main components of the new system are: Information, advocacy, system monitoring Assessment and care planning Capitation Management Provider Network Combining these components without careful thought leads to perverse incentives that reduce or eliminate consumer choice.  or example, a common design is to combine eligibility, planning, and service authorization into a single entitity.  In every case where this has been done in Michgan, the organiztion that conrols all three uses eligibility to control access to services to reduce cost.  Such a use of eligibility destroys the integrity of a choice based system. Another example is placing all greivance and advocacy functions inside an organization. When advocacy is totally dependent on an organization for its survival, it will not effectively defend the interests of consumers. 6:45:59 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2006 Norman G. DeLisle, Jr.. Last update: 8/7/2006; 10:24:36 AM.