Medical Homes Might Improve Quality Of Care, Reduce Costs, USA Today Reports

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 16 Jul 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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Medicare, states and private health insurers have launched pilot programs to test whether medical homes -- in which primary care physicians receive extra payments to oversee and coordinate care for patients -- can help improve the quality of care and reduce costs, USA Today reports. Medical homes -- which could reduce costs through decreased hospitalizations, emergency department visits and chronic disease rates -- seek to coordinate preventive and routine care through "teams" of medical professionals and offer longer office hours, same-day appointments and electronic health records.

Under most pilot programs, physicians who establish medical homes receive extra payments, which can range from a few dollars monthly per patient to more than $35,000 annually per physician. Medicare this year will select eight states to participate in a pilot program that will test whether medical homes can improve quality of care and reduce costs. In fiscal year 2002-2003, North Carolina saved $231 million through the establishment of medical homes in the state Medicaid program.

However, "how well such plans will work" remains undetermined, according to USA Today. Joseph Antos, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, said of medical homes, "If all we're doing is rearranging the deck chairs on the medical Titanic and spending more money, that's clearly not something we want to do" (Appleby, USA Today, 7/13).

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