The author of this article is Roberta L. Carefoote . Managed care was founded on the principle that a marriage between primary and preventive care would reduce the need for costly chronic care. Nowhere is that principle more prevalent than in the execution of select medical management strategies.
Techniques used in primary prevention include health risk assessments and health education.
Secondary prevention - avoiding the occurrence of the acute phase of a disease once a patient has been diagnosed with it. Techniques employed in secondary prevention also include health risk assessments as well as disease management and nurse triage. Tertiary prevention - avoiding patient decline or worsening of a serious patient condition. Techniques used in tertiary prevention also include disease management. This article focuses primarily on preventive medical management techniques commonly employed by managed care organizations - health risk assessment, health education, nurse triage, and disease management.