The goal of case-management is to overcome these common obstacles faced by a breadth of patients with multiple medical disorders.Case management functions include:
- Screening of eligible patients to enroll them into any of the WHAP programs,
- Completing necessary paperwork to enroll patients into federal and state funded health insurance programs such as Medicaid, HUSKY, SAGA, etc.,
- Providing access to free or low cost medication offered by the pharmaceutical companies through their Patient Assistance Programs (PAPs),
- Assigning patients to a medical home for primary care,
- Coordinating referrals to specialists, and
- Conducting periodic surveys of case management patients to further identify the needs of the population.
Seven bilingual case managers form a common point of entry to the coordinated healthcare system for the underserved at each core consortium location. Case managers at different locations have access to and are trained on site-specific administrative software to enable them to more easily access required patient information. Sharing of information across multiple sites is facilitated by the common electronic medical record and common case management system.
The community-wide EMR facilitates the case management functions by providing the case managers with remote access to patient charts including medication lists and diagnoses. The EMR also allows case managers to communicate with providers and schedule appointments for the case management patients.
More importantly, WHAP hopes to have a stronger impact on the overall goals of Healthy People 2010 initiative by improving quality of health for all residents and reducing health disparities. The components of overall WHAP initiatives relate to six out of twenty eight focus areas outlined in the Healthy People 2010.
Accomplishments of Case Management services:
Total number of patients assisted in case management >1000
Total number of patients needing state or
federal coverage >650
Total number of patients who got accepted into
state/federal coverage 275
Total number of patients needing assistance with PAPs >350
Total number of medications ordered 1513
Total number of medications received 766
Total value of medications ordered ~250,000
Total value of medications received ~161,000
Value of medications received per person ~$800