Use and Effect on Patients of Disease Management in Rural Areas

Although rural populations are at high risk for chronic disease, Disease Management (DM) programs currently tend to target the insured and are found in larger population concentrations served by managed care plans. In addition, DM programs that serve rural populations may encounter a variety of factors that inhibit full participation of rural patients in DM programs or result in differential treatment. Building on findings from the Chronic Disease Management Project, this project focused on whether there are observable differences in the impact of disease management (DM) programs between rural and urban populations. Specifically, the study compared rural and urban patients on several dimensions of utilization of DM programs conducted by two or three rural-urban integrated delivery systems.

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