New Findings from M.P. Lin and Co-Authors Describe Advances in Managed Care (ED-Based Care Coordination Reduces Costs for Frequent ED Users)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Researchers detail new data in Managed Care. According to news reporting out of New York City, New York, by VerticalNews editors, research stated, "We evaluated a pilot quality improvement intervention implemented in an urban academic medical center emergency department (ED) to improve care coordination and reduce ED visits and hospitalizations among frequent ED users. Randomized controlled trial."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research, "We identified the most frequent ED users in both the 30 days prior to the intervention and the 12 months prior to the intervention. We randomized the top 72 patients to receive either our pilot intervention or usual care. The intervention consisted of a community health worker who assisted patients with navigating care and identifying unmet social needs and an ED-based clinical team that developed interdisciplinary acute care plans for eligible patients. After 7 months, we analyzed ED visits, hospitalizations, and costs for the intervention and control groups. We randomized 72 patients to the intervention (n = 36) and control (n = 36) groups. Patients randomized to the intervention group had 35% fewer ED visits (P = .10) and 31% fewer admissions from the ED (P = .20) compared with the control group. Average ED direct costs per patient were 15% lower and average inpatient direct costs per patient were 8% lower for intervention patients compared with control patients. ED-based care coordination is a promising approach to reduce ED use and hospitalizations among frequent ED users. Our program also demonstrated a decrease in costs per patient."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Future efforts to promote population health and control costs may benefit from incorporating similar programs into acute care delivery systems."

For more information on this research see: ED-Based Care Coordination Reduces Costs for Frequent ED Users. American Journal of Managed Care, 2017;23(12):762-766. American Journal of Managed Care can be contacted at: Managed Care & Healthcare Communications Llc, 666 Plainsboro Rd, Ste 300, Plainsboro, NJ 08536, USA.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting M.P. Lin, Icahn Sch Med Mt Sinai, New York, NY 10029, United States. Additional authors for this research include B.B. Blanchfield, R.M. Kakoza, V. Vaidya, C. Price, J.S. Goldner, M. Higgins, E. Lessenich, K. Laskowski and J.D. Schuur.

Keywords for this news article include: New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America, Managed Care.

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