The latest results are in. CareFirst’s Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) program – the largest and most established program of its type – is driving improvements in care and cost through patient-centered care. Members enrolled in the program are benefitting through:
• Fewer hospital admissions and readmissions
• Fewer days in the hospital
• Lower cost per emergency room visit
The program has also slowed cost growth by more than a billion dollars against the expected cost of care in the company’s Maryland, DC and Virginia service area.
Primary care is often acknowledged as the foundation of any high-performing health care delivery system. But ow much of our health dollars go to supporting it?
To address this question, the authors of this report—Michael Bailit, Mark Friedberg, and Margaret Houy—present a methodology to define and estimate spending on primary care, relative to other medical expenses.
The Impact of Primary Care Practice Transformation on Cost, Quality, and Utilization reviews PCMH results from 45 peer-reviewed reports and additional government and state evaluations. Implementation of the PCMH and high performing primary care differs depending upon the needs and preferences of those delivering, receiving, and paying for related care.
This report to the Minnesota Legislature is an evaluation of the efficacy of the Health Care Homes Initiative. It describes differences between certified Health Care Homes clinics (HCH) and those clinics that, though eligible, choose not to be certified (non-HCH). Using Medicare and Medicaid claims data, this report addresses differences in cost, utilization, and disparities between Health Care Homes and nonHealth Care Homes from 2010 through 2014.
Population health is widely promoted as a key strategy to transform healthcare through the power of data and analytics. The goal is to separate the most effective treatments for a given patient population from the less effective ones.
While this is largely accurate, Mercy Accountable Care Organization (ACO), made up of a large healthcare system in Des Moines, Iowa, has identified and successfully leveraged an as-yet “unsung hero” factor to supplement its population health strategies. That factor a personalized approach to patient care through health coaches.
Community health workers—the frontline lay workers who serve as a bridge between clinicians and their patients—have been around for several decades in the U.S., but they have rarely been fully integrated into care teams for a variety of practical and cultural reasons. This is in spite of a growing body of evidence that community health workers (CHWs) in the U.S. and overseas can help the sickest and neediest patients improve their health and avoid costly emergency department and hospital visits.
