Medican't: pilot programs fail.

• Author: Suderman, Peter
• Position: Citings - Congressional Budget Office's report on Medicare spending - Brief article

DEFENDERS OF the 2010 federal health care overhaul frequently argue that the law will save money through pilot programs that aim to reshape the way medical services are delivered. The idea is to identify policies that provide better health at lower cost. But a January report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) suggests such reforms will be hard to achieve.

Looking at the results of 34 disease management and care coordination programs, the CBO found most did not reduce Medicare spending. "On average, the 34 programs had little or no effect on hospital admissions" the report says. "In nearly every program, spending was either unchanged or increased relative to the spending that would have occurred in the absence of...