A Model of Health Care That Seeks to ‘Tilt the Balance’ for At-Risk Patients
<p>Knowing that traditional care management approaches weren’t working for the most vulnerable residents in their community, health care leaders in Minnesota’s Hennepin County teamed up to create an accountable care organization (ACO) focused on providing a single point of contact for those dealing with a constellation of medical, behavioral, and social problems.</p><p>“These are patients who are systematically disenfranchised because of the chaos of their lives,” says Paul Johnson, M.D., a clinic medical director who helps treat Medicaid beneficiaries suffering from debilitating mental health problems, chemical dependencies, and other hallmarks of poverty, trauma, and social isolation.</p>
<p>The latest case study in The Commonwealth Fund’s Care <em>Models for High-Need,High-Cost Patients</em> series explores how Hennepin Health seeks to tilt the balance toward greater social support and less-costly preventive and primary care. Learn how this innovative ACO successfully pools the resources of its member organizations to reduce patients’ need for acute care, increase their access to a range of outpatient services, and ease the financial strain on public services.</p>