Description: While disease management programs may improve quality of care for patients with chronic health problems such as diabetes and congestive heart failure, there's little evidence that such programs save money, according to a study released Monday by the non-profit research organization RAND Corp.

Researchers analyzed previous studies on disease management programs -- which use interventions ranging from telephone reminders to home visits by medical professionals -- and found that the programs can improve health care quality and disease control and, in the case of congestive heart failure, lower hospital admission rates.

But there's little evidence about whether the programs improve patient health outcomes or save money over the long term.

"Disease management is viewed as the silver bullet that can fix two problems of the health care system -- inadequate quality and high costs. Unfortunately, while there is evidence that disease management programs can indeed improve the quality of