Michigan insurance and medical groups to launch project to reduce readmissions

Crain's Detroit Business: "Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the University of Michigan and the Society of Hospital Medicine have selected 15 physician organizations in Michigan, including eight in Southeast Michigan, to work with 14 hospitals on a project to reduce preventable readmissions and emergency room visits. Called 'Michigan Transitions of Care Collaborative,' the project is based on a model developed by the Society of Hospital Medicine. The readmission reduction project involves training and mentoring to help physician organizations and hospitals develop, implement and measure programs that reduce the incidence of patients being readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of their discharge, officials said. Blue Cross estimates that unnecessary readmissions to hospitals cost the company millions of dollars each year" (Greene, 5/13).

AnnArbor.com: "The goal of the collaborative for participating physician groups and hospitals is to share best practices for reducing the incidence of patients readmitted to the hospital or the emergency room within 30 days of being discharged. ... The University of Michigan Health System and Integrated Health Associates, a physicians group in the Ann Arbor area, which partners with St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, will be among 15 participants" (Reed, 5/13).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.