From USA TODAY:
Affordable care organizations could save Medicare $960 million over the next three years, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said. She emphasized the need for preventive care, saying that one in five Medicare patients who visit the hospital are back within 30 days, and that one in seven suffer a harmful mistake. An additional 100,000 patients die from infections every year.
Half of Medicare beneficiaries have more than one chronic condition and often receive care from several doctors, according to Health and Human Services. If doctors don’t talk to each other, they can make mistakes in prescribing medications that shouldn’t be taken with the patient’s other prescriptions, or could administer care or tests the patient has already received…
Safyer said coordinated care emphasizes quality and safety, and at his hospital, it means going out to visit elderly patients who live in four-story walk-ups in the Bronx, or making sure patients can get all of their care in one place. One doctor takes charge of each patient’s care, while a team nurse coordinates appointments. The care manager makes sure a patient knows what to avoid with his heart-disease medications, as well as calling to ensure a diabetic patient has her blood sugar under control. “From a financial point of view, 80% of our payments are Medicare and Medicaid,” he said. “This is the only system, in my mind, that can manage the expense.”
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