Is all this work making a difference?

Yes! A cornerstone of the Collaboratives is measurement. The over 65,000 patients are enrolled in a national registry, and have outcomes tracked on a regular basis. We can say with confidence that care and outcomes are improving: self-management, specialty referrals, medication access, and indicators such as HgbA1c are all better for enrolled patients than for pre-enrollment data. Patients with diabetes enrolled in the Collaborative are actually healthier than their white insured counterparts in the private sector! (Bodenheimer, T, MD; Lorig,K RN, DrPH; Holman, H, MD; and Grumbach, K, MD: “Patient Self-Management of Chronic Disease in Primary Care”: JAMA. 2002;288:2469-2475)