Rochester Medical Home Initiative (RMHI)

Program Location: 
Rochester, NY
Number of Practices: 
7
Payer Type: 
Commercial
Payers: 
Excellus BlueCross BlueShield
MVP Health Care
Accreditation/Recognition: 
NCQA

Reported Outcomes

Description: 

According to a 2012 report from the Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC), the RMHI is a collaboration between Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield and MVP Healthcare "who insure a large percentage of the population in the Rochester area, with Excellus covering about 40‐50 percent of the market, and MVP about 20 percent. The two plans developed a medical home demonstration with seven practices covering 33,000 patients.  Excellus and MVP chose to coordinate on quality measures, but because of anti‐trust concerns, they did not coordinate on payment methodologies.  This profile focuses on the experience of Excellus.  

One of the major purposes of the pilot was to evaluate the impact of the PCMH program on all patients, not just Excellus and MVP’s subscribers. To achieve this, the pilot was relatively small, and Excellus covered the costs not only of its own members but the practices’ uninsured, Medicaid and Medicare patients.   

As part of the pilot, providers were required to have a minimum of one nurse care manager for every four physicians; have a connection to MD Datacorp (which analyzed and aggregated EHR and claims data); participate in a learning collaborative; and achieve and maintain NCQA Level 3 PCMH recognition. The health plan built a cadre of nurse “transformation” consultants who helped identify challenge areas and opportunities and helped the practices stay on track as they continued to transform." 

Payment Model: 

Provider participants in the RMHI are paid a PMPM for care coordination and PCMH services. The fee is adjusted annually based on performance.

"Excellus paid about $24 PMPM in the first year, but only for members with a chronic disease. (This is intended to prevent physicians from avoiding taking on new patients who are ill and to risk adjust payments to some extent. It was purposefully inflated for the pilot to cover the cost of patients on the physician’s panel that are not being reimbursed for the project such as Medicare FFS)."

- The Rockefeller Institute (January 2011)

Fewer ED / Hospital Visits: 

Medical Care (November 2015) study evaluated the program using claims data from the participating payers from a pre-intervention period (aug. 2007-July 2009) and a post-intervention period (August 2009-July 2012)

RMHI pilot was associated with reduction in:

  • ambulatory care sensitive emergency department visits of roughly 2 per 1000 member months (P= 0.013), a decrease in 0.14% over baseline
  • overall count of imaging tests  by 400 per 1000 member months (P< 0.001), a decrease of 0.16% over baseline levels.
Improved Health: 

Medical Care (November 2015) study evaluated the program using claims data from the participating payers from a pre-intervention period (aug. 2007-July 2009) and a post-intervention period (August 2009-July 2012)

  • Rates of breast cancer screening tests (20 per 1000 member months, P = 0.005) and low-density lipid (LDL) diabetes tests performed significantly increased in the RMHI practices relative to the comparison practices, representing a 2.6% increase and 3.8% increase over baseline levels, respectively
Improved Access: 

Medical Care (November 2015) study evaluated the program using claims data from the participating payers from a pre-intervention period (aug. 2007-July 2009) and a post-intervention period (August 2009-July 2012)

  • pilot practices experienced increased utilization of primary care physician visits (30 more visits per 1000 member months, P< 0.001) and laboratory tests (70 more per 1000 member months, P= 0.037), over baseline levels (0.01% each)
Cost Savings: 

Medical Care (November 2015) study evaluated the program using claims data from the participating payers from a pre-intervention period (aug. 2007-July 2009) and a post-intervention period (August 2009-July 2012)

  • drug spending decreased by $11.75 per patient per month (0.01% of baseline prescription drug spending) perhaps indicating a shift toward use of generic medications.
  • pilot practices experienced higher spending on inpatient services ($4.71 per patient per month, P = 0.015)
Other Outcomes: 

Medical Care (November 2015) study evaluated the program using claims data from the participating payers from a pre-intervention period (aug. 2007-July 2009) and a post-intervention period (August 2009-July 2012)

  • prescription drug utilization, measured in days supply, increased by 0.01% over baseline levels
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