Healthways Fires Back Over CMS Release of Phase I Results

Implications: Healthways has apparently decided that it is in their best interest to fight back against CMS over the recently released CMS report stating that vendors in Phase I of the Medicare Health Support Projects did not meet outcome or cost results. This may prove short sighted, and is certainly no way to make friends.

Analysis: Healthways decision to publicly fight back against CMS' release of the report stating that Phase I of the Medicare Health Support Projects did not achieve results is a short sighted response.  Healthways has been reporting since their earliest statements on this program that their own internal analysis was showing that they were not achieving the desired results.  This is a clear case of shooting the messenger instead of appropriately dealing with the problem.

For Healthways to state

"Further, we continue to have a number of unresolved issues related to the design, beneficiary selection, randomization and other aspects of the Phase I pilots, including the fact that CMS did not deliver the pilot population that it was contractually obligated to provide."

sounds to me like they are trying to change the project post fact as well as begin a process to instigate some sort of proceeding against CMS.

It is also interesting that Healthways states "...our program or its components will meet or exceed the statutory and current Cooperative Agreement targets ." So are they saying that in the aggregate it didn't work, but at certain discrete points it did and this is how they are justifying its success?

I think Healthways will step into deeper trouble following this route rather than licking their wounds taking the changed savings methodology as a plus and moving on.