Health Dialog's Care Transitions and telephonic health coaching support reduces costs for Medicare beneficiaries

Health Dialog today released a report showing that nurses who used the Care Transitions^TM model telephonically, in conjunction with Health Dialog’s standard telephonic health coaching support, were able to reduce costs and re-admissions for Medicare beneficiaries recently discharged from the hospital.

Developed by Eric Coleman, MD, MPH of the University of Colorado Denver, the Care Transitions™ methodology is designed to promote patient knowledge and self-management during transitions in care settings. It typically consists of telephonic follow-up calls after a hospital visit and home visit, both of which can be costly and difficult to scale for large populations.

Heath Dialog’s David Wennberg, MD, MPH, Chief Science & Products Officer, and Molly Doyle, MBA, Vice President, Senior Products detail the following results in, “From Hospital to Home: A new approach for reducing readmissions and easing transitions in care for the Medicare population”:

• 10% lower total costs in the intervention population
• 14% lower inpatient costs in the intervention population
• 9% lower hospital admission rates post-discharge in the intervention population

According to a 2009 study in the New England Journal of Medicine, transitions in settings of care for the Medicare population are poorly coordinated, leading to unnecessary costs and readmissions. Although many efforts have been made to improve the quality of the hospital discharge experience, most studies to date have not shown an effect on both readmissions and cost. Based on these findings, Health Dialog conducted a matched control analysis of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries recently discharged from acute care settings to test the impact of telephone-only support for transitions in care.

“Transitions in care are a major source of costs to the healthcare system” said Wennberg. “Through this study we have demonstrated a cost-effective way to empower patients and their caregivers to manage conditions and coordinate care post-discharge.”