Can health promotion programs save Medicare money?

Abstract

The impact of an aging population on escalating US healthcare costs is influenced largely by the prevalence of chronic disease in this population. Consequently, preventing or postponing disease onset among the elderly has become a crucial public health issue. Fortunately, much of the total burden of disease is attributable to conditions that are preventable. In this paper, we address whether well-designed health promotion programs can prevent illness, reduce disability, and improve the quality of life. Furthermore, we assess evidence that these programs have the potential to reduce healthcare utilization and related expenditures for the Medicare program. We hypothesize that seniors who reduce their modifiable health risks can forestall disability, reduce healthcare utilization, and save Medicare money. We end with a discussion of a new Senior Risk Reduction Demonstration, which will be initiated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2007, to test whether risk reduction programs developed in the private sector can achieve health improvements among seniors and a positive return on investment for the Medicare program.

Keywords:

• health promotion
• return on investment
• Medicare
• financial impact
• risk reduction programs
• demonstration

Disclosure

Funding for this project was provided by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Medicare Research and Demonstrations Contract #500-00-0034. The authors wish to thank Maryam Tabrizi and Meghan Short for their help in the final preparation of the article. Also, we would like to thank the reviewer(s) of this paper for their comments, which strengthened the manuscript.

The opinions expressed in this paper are the authors’ and do not necessarily represent the opinions of their affiliated organizations.