Exploring the Promise of Population Health Management Programs to Improve Health

Population health management programs—programs targeted to a defined population that use a variety of individual, organizational, and societal interventions to improve health outcomes—are increasingly being looked on by large employers as a promising practice for improving health and outcomes and "bending" the health care cost curve. Given the national focus on the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services' administrator Donald Berwick's "triple aim" of improving population health and care as well as reducing per capita health care costs, a new issue brief looks at the state of population health management programs, highlights related evidence, examines desirable features, and explores their potential.