New healthcare model cut even more costs in year two: insurer

[Redfairen]

Source: Reuters

The nation's largest experiment in delivering medical care in an innovative way has reduced costs and improved the quality of care even more in its second year than in its first, according to the insurance company behind it.

The nonprofit CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield launched its "Patient-Centered Medical Home" program in January 2011 among primary-care providers serving about one-third of its 3.4 million members in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia.

Like other "accountable care organizations" (ACOs), which are centerpieces of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform, the medical home program ties insurance payments to healthcare providers to the quality of care they deliver.

On Thursday, CareFirst reported cost savings of $98 million for the medical home program in 2012, compared with $38 million the year before. Proponents of the model say it shows that "bending the cost curve downward," as Obama described one of the goals of his 2010 healthcare law, is achievable. If innovative models like CareFirst's deliver as promised, it will ease the financial pressures on Medicare, the government health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, and make Obama's healthcare reform more likely to succeed.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/healthcare-model-cut-even-more-costs-two-insurer-121021147.html

[Kip Humphrey]

1. Note key word "nonprofit"

[Grins]

3. But...but...but...Death Panels!

It's going to take a while, but single-payer is coming.

[zipplewrath]

4. good stuff, but a bit decieving

The savings are in basically the reduce delivery of care. They are finding the wasteful care that is being delivered and eliminating/reducing it. That's good. They also did it while maintaining quality of outcomes, i.e. they didn't just skip tests, they skipped unnecessary test while KEEPING the necessary ones. That's very good. (by the by, they also suggest that programs that DON'T do this, have lower quality care AND higher costs).

This is all good. However, NONE of these savings are achived through reduced costs of the care delivered. We still have the most expensive care in the world, by whole integer multiples. The rate of inflation of the cost of CARE continues to rise at unsustainable rates. These improvements around the fringes are nice, but are quickly (in one year basically) reclaimed in the rate of the inflation of the cost of the care being delivered. i.e. we saved you $3 on tests that weren't needed, but the tests you did get cost $4 more. Oh, and next year it's going to go up another 4 bucks.

HMO's tried something like this in the '90s. Reduce wasteful medical care to reduce costs. It works for a year or so, but soon you've stopped the waste, but the costs continue to inflate at unbelievable rates. Until we get control of the costs of CARE, we're doomed. The rest of the world achieves it through some form of "single payer" (or socialized medicine).

[area51]

5. +1

GingrichCare will not fix our broken medical care system; single-payer will.

[zipplewrath]

6. Band aid on a compound fracture

My primary complaint about ACA is that it did nothing for the fundamental problems with our health care system. Instead it merely federalized the health insurance industry. Yes, there are some nice things it did, but mostly it improved the quality of service on the Titanic. Nice, but ultimately the ship is still sinking and everyone is still going to end up in the water. They'll just have prettier clothes when they do.

[In_The_Wind]

8. Hello ~ homehealthcare

[img][/img]

[bitchkitty]

9. Thank you. n/t

[hrmjustin]

10. Welcome to DU my friend!

[malokvale77]

11. Welcome to DU...

From a Personal Care Assistant.

[Gus Lammas]

12. DURec

This should be shouted from rooftops!