New Health and Medicine Study Results Reported from University Hospital Cologne (Ten-year Evaluation of the Population-based Integrated Health Care System “gesundes Kinzigtal.”): Health and Medicine

2021 NOV 16 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators discuss new findings in Health and Medicine. According to news reporting from Cologne, Germany, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “The population-based integrated health care system called ‘Gesundes Kinzigtal’ (Integrierte Versorgung Gesundes Kinzigtal, IVGK) was initiated more than 10 years ago in the Kinzig River Valley region, which is located in the Black Forest in the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg. IVGK is intended to optimize health care while maximizing cost-effectiveness.”

Financial support for this research came from Innovation Committee of the Federal Joint Committee.

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from University Hospital Cologne, “It consists of programs for promoting health and for enabling cooperation among service providers, as well as of a shared-savings contract that has enabled resources to be saved every year. The goal of the present study was to investigate trends in the quality of care provided by IVGK over the past ten years in comparison to conventional care. This is a non-randomized observational study with a control-group design (Kinzig River Valley versus 13 structurally comparable control regions), employing data collected by AOK, a large statutory health-insurance provider in Germany, over the period 2006-2015. Quality assessment was conducted with the aid of a set of indicators, developed by the authors, that was based exclusively on claims data. The statistical analysis of the trends in these indicators over time was conducted with preset criteria for the relevance of any observed changes, as well as preset mechanisms of controlling for confounding factors. For 88 of the 101 evaluable indicators, no relevant difference was seen between the trend over time in the region of the intervention and the average trend in the control regions. Relevant differences in favor of the IVGK were observed for six indicators, and negatively divergent trends compared to the controls were observed for seven indicators. In the main summarizing statistical analysis, no positive or negative difference was found between the Kinzig River Valley and the other regions with respect to trends in the health-care indicators over time. An evaluation based on 101 indicators derived from health-insurance data did not reveal any improvement of the quality of care by IVGK and the totality of the programs that were implemented under it.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “However, under the conditions of the shared-savings contract, no relevant diminution in the quality of care was observed over a period of 10 years either, compared with structurally similar control regions without an integrated care model.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Ten-year Evaluation of the Population-based Integrated Health Care System “gesundes Kinzigtal.” Deutsches Aerzteblatt Online, 2021;118. Deutsches Aerzteblatt Online can be contacted at: Deutscher Aerzte-verlag Gmbh, Dieselstrabe 2, Postfach 400265, D-50859 Cologne, Germany.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Ingrid Schubert, University Hospital Cologne, Pmv Res Grp, Dept Psychiat & Psychotherapy Children & Young Ad, Cologne, Germany. Additional authors for this research include Ingrid Koester, Peter Ihle, Claudia Mehl, Max Geraedts, Dominikus Stelzer, Erika Graf, Erik Farin-Glattacker, Achim Siegel, Christian Guenster, Patrik Droege and Andreas Kloess.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.m2021.0163. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)