Medical home model improves quality of healthcare, reduces cost: Geisinger study

Results of a Geisinger study published in the August 2010 edition of the American Journal of Managed Care show its advanced medical home model is capable of simultaneously improving the quality of healthcare and reducing the cost.

The observational study of Geisinger's medical home model, ProvenHealth NavigatorSM, looks at four years of claims data for approximately 15,000 of Geisinger Health Plan's Medicare Advantage members at 11 community practice sites.

ProvenHealth Navigator is a close collaboration between Geisinger Health Plan and Geisinger Clinic that is designed to improve the quality of care provided in physician offices through the implementation of patient-centered, physician-guided, cost-efficient and longitudinal protocols that are evidence-based, coordinated and integrated. The study shows that ProvenHealth Navigator is capable of significantly reducing admissions (18 percent) and readmissions (36 percent) for Medicare Advantage members.

With an increased focus on delivering high-quality, cost-efficient healthcare to patients, ProvenHealth Navigator offers a promising model that optimizes the relationship between healthcare payers and providers to transform the delivery of primary care. Currently, Geisinger provides ProvenHealth Navigator services at 32 Geisinger sites and five non-Geisinger sites.

According to Thomas Graf, M.D., chair of Geisinger Community Practice, ProvenHealth Navigator focuses attention and resources on ensuring that all patients in a primary care practice get preventive care.

"Through the ProvenHealth Navigator model we closely manage the care of patients with chronic diseases to help them regain or maintain a state of wellness," he said. "By providing a resource at the first sign of a complication, this program has significantly reduced the number of unnecessary hospitals admissions and readmissions."