Experts: To Cut Health Costs, Improve Transitions

Many studies have found that efforts to manage the care of patients going home from the hospital have improved quality and reduced hospital use and costs, the researchers write.

Studies have found no evidence that efforts to manage the cost of home care have improved the quality of care for home-bound patients or reduced the cost of their care, the researchers write.

Some primary care groups have tried to take responsibility for active care management efforts: 7 out of 9 studies found those programs improved quality, but only 3 of 8 studies that looked at participating patients’ hospital use found that the programs reduced participants’ hospital use.

“Though primary care is a logical site for care management, stresses on primary care make it difficult to implement effective care management,” the researchers write. “Even patients with health insurance are experiencing great difficulty gaining access to primary care when they need it. Current primary care physician visit lengths are not sufficient to handle the multiple problems of complex patients.”