Which Medical Practices Are Best at Treating High-Need Patients?
<p>Primary care practices serving a greater proportion of “high need” patients with multiple health conditions appear to have an edge in treating them over other practices, a new Commonwealth Fund–supported study finds. Writing in <em>Health Affairs,</em> a research team led by the University of Michigan’s Julia Adler-Milstein reports that high-need patients enrolled in these practices have lower health care costs, fewer hospital admissions, and fewer emergency department visits than those enrolled in practices with a lower proportion of high-need patients.</p><p>The authors say the findings are surprising, given the additional time, resources, and expertise required to manage the health of this complex population effectively. Practices serving higher proportions of high-need patients, they suggest, may have reached a tipping point in experience and economies of scale that has enabled them to succeed. </p>
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletters/ealerts/2017/mar/which-medical-practices-are-best-at-treating-highneed-patients Read more