This vision has a name: the “patient-centered medical home.” The “home” is the office of a primary-care doctor where patients would go for most of their medical needs. The general practitioner would oversee everything from flu shots to chronic disease management to weight loss, and coordinate care with nurses, pharmacists, and specialists. A 2004 study estimated that if every patient had such a home, the resulting efficiencies might reduce U.S. health-care costs by 5.6%, a savings of $67 billion a year.

Instead, most patients today get a scant seven minutes with a general practitioner, who has time to do little more than ask cursory questions and focus on the problem at hand. The patient rushes to specialists for chronic conditions that could be managed by a regular doctor. (Today, these different physicians rarely coordinate.) Last-minute appointments are almost unheard of—one reason patients with minor complaints flock to already crowded hospital emergency rooms.

This medical home may sound like the “gatekeeper” model of the 1990s, a managed-care creation that was all about holding down costs. But advocates say the new concept is designed to help patients, not insurers. It’s more like doctoring 1950s-style, when a Marcus Welby figure handled all the family’s medical needs. This time it’s juiced up with digital technology.

It also represents a politically painless way to streamline a disorganized and wasteful system that chews up a crippling 18% of the U.S. gross domestic product. That burden is felt particularly by private industry, which covers 60% of the nation’s insured. Since most businesses try to ferret out waste and disorganization in their own operations, the medical home is a concept they can embrace in good conscience.

Grundy’s role in the debate is as a representative of a leading employer, advocating both for the medical-home model and for employers as innovators. Read the full article here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Michael Taylor MD FACP, Chairman of Center for Health Value Innovation, Lauds Consumer Engagement and Support for Wellness Programs

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – May 13, 2009 –The Center for Health Value Innovation, (www.vbhealth.org), the nation’s premier organization dedicated to establishing value and producing evidence for sustainable health and financial improvement, cites the importance of co-pay incentives in fostering consumer engagement to improve employee behaviors, reduce the cost trend, and accelerate positive outcomes. Mike Taylor, M.D., FACP, medical director of health promotion at Caterpillar Inc. and chairman of the Center, points to the successes documented by members of the Center including commercial payers, private sector employers, municipalities, health systems, and provider organizations.

“Employers look to Washington for revisions that will enable them to adopt wellness programs and effectively reward wellness performance,” says Dr. Taylor.  “These may include eliminating the 20 percent cap on such rewards, removing the tax to employees – which adds a dollar burden where they least need it– and easing the accommodation rule which can diminish the effect of population health rewards. These changes will help employers engage their populations in improved health management.”

Taylor says that an increasing number of businesses are using the Center’s principles of ‘Data, Design, Delivery, and Dividend’ to reap the rewards of engagement, lowered health cost trend, improved productivity and quality of care.

“With the alignment of stakeholders, increased provider participation in incentive-based designs, and public and private support for wellness initiatives, the Center anticipates an uptake in the emergence of value-based product offerings,” says Dr. Taylor.  “The Center applauds the general direction of all these discussions that are emphasizing the importance of health and wellness. Personalized benefits designs along with wellness incentives are proven to improve consumer health.”

Jack Mahoney, M.D., chief medical officer of the Center, adds, “As we experience the first tremors of what will be a massive shift in health care in this country, the pioneering leaders at the Center, like Mike Taylor, are ready to share their collective experiences and wisdom in driving the value of health dollars.”

About The Center for Health Value Innovation:
Information exchange for value-based design
Launched in 2007, The Center for Health Value Innovation is a multi-stakeholder not-for-profit (501c3) alliance focused on employers that drives the financial value of health dollars.  www.vbhealth.org <http://www.vbhealth.org> .