AHA podcast discusses how to care for medically complex patients

In an American Hospital Association podcast, leaders from University of Utah Health, Salt Lake City, discuss how an intensive primary care model is lowering hospital utilization and improving patient stability. The leaders collaborated with an internal insurance component of their health system to identify medically complex patients who made frequent trips to the emergency department. Because these patients had unmet social and behavioral health needs, the leaders created primary care teams offering medical support, behavioral health or therapists, care managers and medical assistants. For this type of model to succeed, the leaders say insurers need to offer value-based payment or an alternate payment model to fee-for-service, and leaders need to determine how to measure impact towards greater patient stability. It also takes time to realize savings, they say.