Care Transitions in the News
December 10, 2009
Program aims to avoid hospital return
2TheAdvocate
By Marsha Shuler
A federally funded pilot program is reducing readmission rates for some seniors at Baton Rouge area hospitals, an executive of a Medicare quality improvement organization said Monday.
And it appears that a similar program is envisioned to help reduce Medicare health insurance costs as part of U.S. Senate health‐care legislation under debate, said Edie Castello, vice president and chief operating officer of Louisiana Health Care Review.
“We believe our activity will have an impact on how Medicare restructures the system,” Castello told the Press Club of Baton Rouge on Monday.
The Baton Rouge area initiative is one of 15 “Care Transition” pilot projects being funded around the U.S. by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
For full story, click here: http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/78197487.html
Coaches could cut down on rehospitalization, Press Club speaker says
The Daily Report (Baton Rouge Business Report)
By Todd Brown
The days when a physician guided a patient through all manner of health care minutiae are gone, but medical providers can help patients help themselves by using one‐on‐one coaches during the discharge and after‐care process, says Edie Castello, vice president and COO of eQ Health Solutions.
Speaking at Monday’s Baton Rouge Press Club gathering, Castello says a regional pilot program reduced hospital readmissions for Medicare patients treated for pneumonia, congestive heart failure and heart attacks through “care transitions” coaching.
From March through October, 145 patients participated in the program, and seven were re‐hospitalized. That rate of less than 5% contrasts with an overall rehospitalization rate of 18.86% in the Capital Region and 19.05% in the state, Castello says. Patients in the program had not been assigned home health care.
eQ Health Solutions, formerly Louisiana Health Care Review, rebranded in August to reflect the company’s operations in Illinois and Mississippi and helps Medicare and Medicaid programs reduce costs. Castello says if the pilot program was replicated nationwide, it could save Medicare $12 billion annually from rehospitalizing. The company hopes to expand to Florida and possibly elsewhere, while the local pilot program is ongoing through fall 2011.
Paul Murphree, medical director of quality and patient safety for program participant Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, says ensuring that patients understand their medication and are engaged in their own healing process can require subtle psychology, such as reminding patients how important it is to get to their grandchildren’s graduation by taking proper care of themselves.
To view online, click here: http://www.businessreport.com/archives/daily‐report/2009/nov/30/1340/
Baton Rouge pilots health care reform
Monroe News Star, Alexandria Town Talk, Lafayette Daily Advertiser
By Mike Hasten
BATON ROUGE — Buried somewhere within the 2,074‐page health care reform bill being debated in the U.S. Senate is a program that is being tested in a pilot program involving several Baton Rouge area hospitals.
If the Louisiana Health Care Review program's initial success continues and "care transition" is applied nationwide, officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimate it could save $12 billion a year in Medicare funding.
As described by Edie Costello, vice president of EQ Health Solutions, it's basically a simple program that employs "coaches" to help patients follow instructions given by their doctors and hospitals when they're released from hospital care. She said fragmented or poor communication between health care providers and patients about medications, warning signs and disease prevention and the lack of follow‐up visits are the main problems being addressed.
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