Health care reform piloted in Baton Rouge

[Louisiana1976]

BATON ROUGE — Buried in the 2,074-page health care reform bill being debated in the U.S. Senate is a program being tested in a pilot involving several Baton Rouge area hospitals.

If the Louisiana Health Care Review program's initial success continues and "care transition" is applied nationwide, officials at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services estimate it could save $12 billion a year in Medicare funding.

As described by Edie Costello, vice president of EQ Health Solutions, the simple program employs "coaches" to help patients follow instructions given by their doctors and hospitals when they're released from hospital care. She said fragmented or poor communication between health care providers and patients about medications, warning signs and disease prevention and the lack of follow-up visits are the main problems being addressed.

Currently, 19 percent of Louisiana's hospital patients are readmitted within 30 days for treatment of the same or a related problem, ranking the state 48th in the nation. The national average is 17.6 percent readmission, she said.

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http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20091205/NEWS01/912050307/1060

[JDPriestly]

1. Excellent. Maybe they plan to replace Medicare Advantage

with this. That could make sense. Since the point of Medicare Advantage (at least of my plan) is to insure continuity and efficiency of medical care for older people. It's a way to make sure that older people don't get lost in the shuffle between doctors, tests, various medical facilities and a confusing array of medications.