February 11th, 2009

Reports the Philadelphia Inquirer:

A Doylestown nonprofit may have cracked a costly medical conundrum: how to keep the sickest Medicare patients out of the hospital and save taxpayer money in the process.

The group’s approach? Educate patients who have chronic diseases and give them monthly face-to-face contacts with nurses.

The program could inspire ongoing efforts by Medicare, Gov. Rendell, New Jersey officials and others across the U.S. to find better ways to manage chronic illness, which accounts for a huge portion of the nation’s $2 trillion health-care bill.

A study in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association examined 15 Medicare-sponsored care-management programs and found that Health Quality Partners was one of the few that showed some success at holding down costs and reducing hospitalizations.

The nonprofit’s fee to manage care was nearly offset by the lower spending on its patients, the study found. And for the 30 percent of patients whose illnesses were the most severe, the group significantly cut costs and hospital visits.

Read the in-depth story on the program at the Inquirer.