Case Management Services Provided at MS Care Centers

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neurological disease requiring specialty care and services. The American healthcare system currently lacks the ability to provide comprehensive and coordinated care for patients with chronic conditions such as MS. In order to better serve the MS population, comprehensive centers may consider employing a case manager to facilitate the implementation of patient specific healthcare programs.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of on-site case management services in comprehensive MS care centers. We also captured the most common responsibilities of case managers, reasons why a MS center does not offer case management, and how many patients would benefit from case management services.

Methods: 1788 professionals attended the 2012 CMSC Meeting in San Diego. Attendees that visited the Mandell MS Center booth were invited to participate in a survey designed to collect information on the number of patients served and use of case management services at different MS centers. Specifically if an attendee was employed at a MS center that offered case management services we surveyed: number of case managers, hours worked, the average wait time, number of MS patients referred weekly, and the most common responsibility of a case manager. If an attendee was employed at an MS center that did not offer case management services we surveyed: the number of MS patients that could benefit from case management, where patients are referred to in lieu of a case manager, and why each site did not offer such services.

Results: Data was collected from 79 meeting attendees. Of the 79 attendees surveyed, 40 said they offered case management, with 37 different MS care sites represented. Data collected from these 40 attendees indicated that the top three “most common” responsibilities of a case manager were insurance/authorization issues (40%), disease management (20%), and referrals for community service (17%). Data collected from the other 39 attendees, representing 32 MS care sites where case management was not offered, indicated that the top reason for lack of case management services was financial (70%). Further, 28 of these 39 attendees also indicated that at least 4 or more patients per week would benefit from case management services. Finally, statistical analysis of the data demonstrated that the number of patients served at each MS site was not directly associated with the different parameters surveyed.

Conclusions: Survey data were collected from 69 different MS care sites. Only half of the 69 sites reported offering case management services, demonstrating that case managers are not comonly used in comprehensive MS patient care. Further almost all the CMSC attendees from sites with no case management services indicate that they have MS patients that would benefit from case management. Therefore, in order to provide more comprehensive and coordinated health care, MS care centers should consider the employment of case managers.