 |
| Dr. William Matzner, Simi Valley, California |
In the modern days of limited healthcare resources and
decreased insurance reimbursements, it is not only helpful for healthcare
organizations to analyze how new programs affect them economically, but also
very useful to monitor the economic outcome of existing healthcare programs or
treatments.
I was asked to analyze an existing disease management
program by a large healthcare organization. They had developed a disease
management program for COPD and wished to know if it was economically sound to
continue this program.
I concluded that the most thorough way to evaluate this
program was to use a Cost Effectiveness Markov Model. These models are excellent
for looking at chronic on going conditions such as COPD. There are three
possible disease states: Stable, somewhat sick and visiting urgent care, very
sick and requiring hospitalization.
We were able to calculate not only costs associated with
each state but also the quality of life as expressed in quality adjusted life
years (QALY). The program was analyzed using incremental cost effectiveness
ratio (ICER).
The conclusion was
that the program was successful by a significant amount, and furthermore that
the savings was due to significant cost decrease in hospitalization of COPD
patients involved in the program. Thus CEA can not only evaluate existing
programs, but guide us into how those programs prove their effectiveness. CEA
is starting to show its increased versatility in the modern healthcare economic
environment.
About William L.
Matzner, M.D., PhD, FACP
Dr.
William Matzner works in the area of healthcare economics consulting at
Healthcare Analytics, LLC, in California. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from
Stanford University. He received his M.D. with Honors from Baylor College of
Medicine. In 1988, he was the Solomon Scholar for Resident Research at Cedar
Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Matzner subsequently was awarded a PhD in Neuro
Economics from Claremont Graduate University. He is board certified in Internal
Medicine and Palliative Medicine. He has researched and published extensively
on the issue of reproduction and immunology in medical literature. He has been
in private practice since 1989, specializing in Reproductive Immunology and
Internal medicine.
Website: https://drwilliammatzner.com
Consulting Website: https://healthcareanalytics.biz
News: https://hippocratesguild.com/dr-william-matzner News: https://medicogazette.com/dr-william-matzner
William Matzner, MD (Simi Valley, California), has been practicing medicine since 1989, Internal Medicine and Reproductive Immunology. M.D. with Honors from Baylor College of Medicine.
