| Coordinated health and human services delivery system and process -> Monitor Keywords |
|
|
 
Coordinated health and human services delivery system and processRelated Patent Categories: Data Processing: Financial, Business Practice, Management, Or Cost/price Determination, Automated Electrical Financial Or Business Practice Or Management Arrangement, Health Care Management (e.g., Record Management, Icda Billing), Patient Record ManagementCoordinated health and human services delivery system and process description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060190303, Coordinated health and human services delivery system and process. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/654,932, filed Feb. 23, 2005, entitled "Coordinated Health and Human Services Management Network", by Jay E. Yourist, Karl J. Krieger, Robert L. Dilworth, and Zuhair Latif, which is hereby incorporated by reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The embodiments of the invention herein relate to management systems, and more particularly a method of health and human services delivery. DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART [0003] The management practices of the healthcare system evolved in response to the high incidences of acute illnesses. However, over the last fifty years the prevalence of chronic illness has risen significantly. Chronic disease is a leading cause of disability and consequently unemployment for special needs populations including the elderly and disabled. Indirect non-clinical care costs frequently associated with disability, dependency, and joblessness are higher than the direct clinical care costs. Chronic disease is a leading cause of disability and unemployment undermining worker productivity and employability. Persons with chronic conditions may be less likely to work and may be more likely to have lower incomes. Minority populations have also demonstrated a higher incidence of chronic conditions, primarily diabetes and ensuing disability, further disenfranchising those particular populations. [0004] Historically, healthcare practices were not coordinated but episodic and fragmented thereby proving to be increasingly inefficient for treating individuals of chronic diseases. In addition, service providers did not readily have access to client information which resulted in limited service delivery and cost inefficiency. Healthcare expenditures have steadily increased due to unnecessary hospital admissions, expensive and indecisive technologies, and the accumulation of conflicting clinical data. These expenditures have not provided substantive improvements in health status, community integration, or independent living. [0005] Over the last twenty five years, policies and programs have been enacted to integrate services in order to promote cost efficiency and improve the quality of health care for such plans. Notably, the US Congress, through the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the IDEA Act of 1988, developed a policy to deliver a comprehensive plan to provide coordinated services to both adults and children with disabilities. Attempts to integrate or coordinate all or a part of the necessary services to achieve coordinated health care services have formerly included Disease and Care Management Programs, Workers Compensations Programs, Vocational Rehabilitation (Rehabilitation Act of 1973), IDEA Act of 1988, Ticket to Work Program, Comprehensive Elder Programs (PACE), Social HMOs, California Medi-Cal model for persons with disabilities (CHAT), Community Health Information Network (CHIN), and Integrated Healthcare Management (IHM). [0006] The Ticket to Work Program; the Medicaid Buy-In; Benefits Planning, Assistance and Outreach (BPAO); and Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security (PABSS) were all key initiatives contained in the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 (TWWIIA) for increasing employment outcomes for beneficiaries. The goal of the Ticket Program was to give disability beneficiaries the opportunity to achieve long-term employment by providing them greater choices and Confidential (Social Security Administration) SSA Contract Proposal opportunities for employment. The legislation also removed barriers that previously influenced individual's choices between healthcare coverage and work. However, despite significant efforts by the SSA to provide employment opportunities such as the "Ticket to Work Program", less than 1% of all disability program beneficiaries return to gainful employment. (Wehman, 2003 a) [0007] Considerable evidence and testimony from beneficiaries, advocates and providers have noted significant weaknesses in the Ticket to Work Program namely; 1) eligibility criteria exclude certain beneficiaries with significant return to work potential, 2) conflicts exist between the vocational rehabilitation system and the Ticket Program, and 3) the provider payment system has failed to recruit sufficient providers to guarantee beneficiary choice in job training and supports. Few beneficiaries and even fewer providers are participating in the Ticket program. The national statistics for Ticket assignments as of Sep. 27, 2005 indicate that 11,038,798 Tickets were issued and 104,537 tickets (0.95%) were assigned which is less than 1% of the total ticket distribution. Of those assigned Tickets 96,358 were assigned to Vocational Rehabilitation agencies (92.2%) and 8,179 to Employer Networks (ENs) (7.8%). These statistics mirror with those ticket assignment statistics in the State of Florida. [0008] For example, in the State of Florida as of Sep. 27, 2005 out of 678,489 eligible ticket holders, only 5,688 Tickets were assigned (0.84%). Of the assigned tickets, 578 tickets were assigned to ENs (10%) and 5,110 Tickets were assigned to Florida's Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (90%). These numbers parallel national statistics where, nearly ninety percent of the current participants of the Ticket Program have been assigned to VR agencies. Consequently, overwhelming use of State VR agencies and the low numbers of ENs assisting current "Ticket" holders indicate that the goals of the Ticket Program to enhance access to services, primarily employment, are not being met. Studies have shown that beneficiaries would prefer to be employed if their primary benefits could remain intact, especially healthcare. [0009] The Social Security Administration supports two disability programs: Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The programs consume approximately five percent of the federal budget, and are projected to become much more costly through 2012. The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 was enacted to provide employment opportunities for beneficiaries, potentially reversing the growing claimant burden on the Social Security Administration. This has met with limited success and the suggested reforms and barrier removal strategies to improve the delivery of the Ticket Program tend to focus on policy changes and administrative systems in isolation, rather than following a holistic, integrative or a total systems approach. As the "baby boomer" population reaches the age where they are more susceptible to disability, critical economic issues impacting employment and rising health insurance costs can be expected to accelerate growth of these Social Security disability programs. [0010] It has been verified that educating participants to make positive lifestyle choices can significantly reduce the complications attributed to chronic disease and disability. However, the traditional health care programs have been fragmented and ineffective. The policies and programs were mainly aimed at integrating primary and specialty healthcare services. They were not successful due in large part to the practical inability to access and share medical data. A major barrier to providing such services was also conflicting business interests, namely the reluctance for multiple healthcare providers to cooperate and coordinate their services due to increased competition. In addition, individual health and economic prosperity have typically been managed independently and in isolation with regard to the overall management of healthcare, wellness, community and vocational service delivery. The dissociation has compounded the problem to the detriment of both healthcare and economic remedies. [0011] A need therefore exists for integrating and coordinating healthcare wellness, disease prevention, social, and employment service functions into a health care program to improve the quality of life for special needs populations such as elderly populations, minority populations, uninsured and underinsured populations, and persons with disabilities including those having chronic illness. Such a program can prepare a participant for employment, independence, and improved quality of life. In particular, a need also exists to establish a system to promote gainful employment for SSDI/SSI beneficiaries by providing a multi-disciplinary support system of services that promotes long term behavior modification, self-determination and systems change. OBJECT OF THE INVENTION [0012] An object of the invention is to bring together an array of interlocking modalities and constructs in ways that are mutually reinforcing and a part of one single overarching system. Typically, individual health care system components, such as peer support teams and circles, are usually used in isolation from one another rather than in juxtaposition with other systems or components of systems. In other cases there is no known existing parallel to these system pieces; that is, the manner in which principles of action learning are to be employed. The system component involved within the context of the invention, even if similar to systems that are already available in some form in the market place, have been specifically tailored to fit within the overall coordinated human and health services and delivery system to promote synergy. A core essence of the embodiments of the invention, as well as the uniqueness, is in its broad integration of essential services as a single system. The system is designed to holistically provide the necessary support mechanisms and services to not only improve the health status of those with chronic disease and disabilities of clients, but also to improve their quality of life, build their self-efficacy and level of self-confidence, and position clients for reentry into the workforce. [0013] Referring to FIG. 1, an illustration for a connectivity of services is shown. The illustration represents the services as pieces of a puzzle connected together by an information technology (IT) platform. The IT platform is just one embodiment demonstrating how various system pieces can be widely integrated from a process standpoint, in support of chronic disease management, social services and support for those with chronic disease and/or disabilities. Various embodiments of the invention, in addition to the IT embodiment, are herein contemplated. The IT component can be considered as a tool to facilitate service coordination and data collection and analysis for a continuum of available services. Understandably, information technology can be interwoven throughout the services and delivery system in ways that optimize the sharing of critical information, both within the specific system and with external organizations, such as Vocational Rehabilitation. As a result, a coordinated human and health services and delivery program can be established wherein case management under such a program can become much more efficient. Rather than a series of individual and isolated system components or services, the framework creates an open system for coordination of services from the standpoint of information sharing across agency and organizational lines. [0014] The business methods underlying the system of coordinated health and human service delivery herein presented can be applied to various contexts and operations. For example, the system can be configured to target Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Social Security Insurance (SSI) beneficiaries. Understandably, these beneficiaries are unique and require a broad range of support services to sustain community integrations which the coordinated health and human service delivery of the invention is uniquely adapted to provide. The coordinated health and human service delivery herein presented is flexible and adaptable to such unique demands. In one particular example, Federal and State systems have been minimally successful in enticing such individuals to actively return to the workplace (i.e., The Ticket-To-Work program). Consequently, one aspect of the invention is configurable for addressing the complexity of this problem. The embodiment of the invention can prove highly effective in providing coordinated services to other clientele groups as well. For instance, in one aspect, the underlying business methods can be readily customized to serve the elderly or to operate in different cultures in the United states or elsewhere. The system can evolve and adapt over time due to the inherent system flexibility afforded by the uniqueness and novelty of the coordinated delivery services model. [0015] In certain aspects, the business methods underlying the system of coordinated health and human service delivery can be considered multi-disciplinary; that is, a holistic support system, which facilitates the linkage and efficient management of integrating clinical, community and vocational services. Accordingly, the system as a whole creates a seamless continuum of one coordinated service infrastructure. Notably, the execution of healthcare and social services in existence today is highly fragmented and not coordinated. The independent service modules are themselves not unique, but the architecture and deployment of this invention provides a coordinated system of essential services that represents a unique and novel systems approach. [0016] The purposeful departure from independent service delivery is a hallmark feature of this invention. The underlying business methods of the invention provide an innovative approach that represents a paradigm shift in traditional case management and service delivery for primary care, specifically aimed at chronic disease and disability management. In one aspect, the invention is an evidence-based, population-based model that delivers culturally-relevant services customized for any population demographic, but is especially applicable for minority, underserved and underinsured communities with particular chronic diseases and/or disabilities. Uniquely designed, it employs action learning principles and peer support teams which foster individual responsibility and self-management under the auspices of support services mechanism and network, with the oversight of an advisory body of stakeholders. In one embodiment, the effective integration of these otherwise disparate services is realized through a proprietary IT platform. [0017] In one aspect, for purposes of practical illustration, the method of coordinated services provided by the invention can promote gainful employment for SSDI/SSI beneficiaries through the deployment of a primary care and social delivery system in an underdeveloped country. It should be understood that the underlying business methods supporting the coordinated network of human and health services delivery may be applied to a variety of populations, particularly underserved communities, in need of coordination and/or consolidation of services. [0018] Thus, in one aspect, the invention can provide a coordinated services support network to promote coordinated human and health services delivery for participant beneficiaries by providing a multi-disciplinary support system of services that promotes long term behavior modification, self-determination and systems change. This can include, but is not limited to, A. Developing a logistics infrastructure and training staff to provide essential services. B. Partnering with Disability Vocational Resource (DVR) providers as a collaborator in most aspects of program from participant recruitment, plan development to data capture, analysis and evaluation. Continue reading about Coordinated health and human services delivery system and process... Full patent description for Coordinated health and human services delivery system and process Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Coordinated health and human services delivery system and process patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Coordinated health and human services delivery system and process or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Systems and methods for coordinating the flow of events in a health care setting using a workflow module Next Patent Application: Method and apparatus for automated generation of a patient treatment plan Industry Class: Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or cost/price determination ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Coordinated health and human services delivery system and process patent info. IP-related news and info Results in 0.10009 seconds Other interesting Feshpatents.com categories: Accenture , Agouron Pharmaceuticals , Amgen , AT&T , Bausch & Lomb , Callaway Golf 174 |
 * Protect your Inventions * US Patent Office filing 
PATENT INFO |
|
