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In Hospitals in a Medical Home: Partners in Enhancing Access, Health Status and Cost Avoidance, the director of a medical home network demonstrates how hospitals can partner with medical homes to deliver patient-centered care to uninsured and low-income patients while reaping the financial benefits associated with decreased utilization and duplication of services.

Richland Care Director Marcus Barnes describes how Palmetto Health, the largest healthcare system in South Carolina, developed and launched a network of 12 medical homes that achieved an average cost avoidance of $707,000 per 12-month period. Barnes explains how eight-year-old Richland Care provides an integrated healthcare delivery system for low-income uninsured residents of Richland County — improving access to care, creating a healthier community and lessening the bottleneck in the ED.

In this 25-page special report, Barnes describes how Richland Care functions as a health navigator, guiding patients to the specific health resources they need to help keep them healthy from two hospital systems in Richland County as well as satellite behavioral health, substance abuse and community agencies.

As an added bonus, this report summarizes results from HIN's Medical Homes in 2009 e-survey, which generated responses from more than 220 healthcare organizations on medical home awareness, adoption and impact.

This report also provides details on the following:

• Investment and funding models necessary to support a medical home network;
• Socioeconomic factors contributing to the need for a medical home network;
• The multiple roles of the hospital in the medical home network;
• Deploying disease management and chronic care to a financially vulnerable population;
• The role of home visits and health IT in the medical home network;
• The importance of community partnerships and details on the numerous partnerships that Richland Care has developed as part of its initiative;
• Strategies to engage hospitals and communities in patient-centered care systems;
• Effect of Richland Care on inpatient utilization, ED utilization and self-reported health status;
• Medical Homes in 2009 e-survey results on awareness, adoption and impact of the medical home model from more than 220 responding healthcare organizations;

Table of Contents

• How Hospitals Benefit from Partnerships in Patient-Centric Primary Care
  • Service Components of the Model
  • Effect on Utilization and Self-Reported Health Status
  • Variable Cost Avoidance
  • Hospital’s Role in the Integrated Healthcare Delivery System
  • What’s Working in the Medical Home Network
  • Why a Hospital Should Develop a Medical Home Network
• Q&A: Ask the Experts
  • Utilizing Internet Portals in a Medical Home Network
  • Incentives for Patient Participation
  • Initial Investment and Annual Funding
  • Challenges of Creating Strategic Partnerships
  • Deploying Disease Management
  • Provider Access to PHRs
  • Walking Through the Home Visit
  • Coordinating and Communicating the Care Plan
  • Medical Home Assignment
  • Selecting Medical Home Sites
  • Provider Fee Schedules
  • Educating Patients on the Care Delivery System
  • Task Force Members
  • Education Opportunities in the ED
  • Special Care for the Chronically Ill
  About the Authors
• Glossary
• For More Information
• About the Authors