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Friday, June 4, 2010

Medical home: Looking good so far.


Today, we announced meaningful, forward progress in the Michigan Blues'
Patient-Centered Medical Home program.  In looking at initial pieces of data, we found that Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) practices are changing the way they practice medicine to be more attuned to their patients' ongoing needs.  In fact, we found that patients in PCMH practices have lower hospital admissions, fewer ER visits and lower use of radiology services.

So what does this mean to you, the average patient?  It means your PCMH doctor will manage your care on an ongoing basis and will work with you to help you reach your health goals.  You won't just see your doctor when you are sick - your doctor will keep tabs on you even when you are well.  It means your PCMH doctor will help you learn to manage your diabetes or asthma or high blood pressure, so little problems don't become bigger problems that end up with you in the ER or hospital.  It means your PCMH practice knows you, has all your health records and is available to you by phone 24-hours a day.  Simply put, PCMH is your home for health.

At Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, we think the Patient-Centered Medical Home will change health care for the better.  We feel so strongly about this model of care, that we've invested several years in working with our physician partners to develop our PCMH program.  And, as you'll see in this news release, it looks like the PCMH program is working.

1 comment:

  1. Hi, I'm a blogger over at the Disease Management Care Blog and the data look interesting. Is everything in either the BCBS Fact Sheet and the Press Release or... is there a publication somewhere with sufficient detail to look at the details behind the methodology? It's important because if the numbers hold up, you could be the first to show PCMH savings in a commercial setting.

    Jaan Sidorov

    ReplyDelete

 

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