Study: Pa. medical homes yield modest care improvement

Medical homes take a team approach to care, with the help of everyone from nurses to front desk staff focusing on preventing and managing chronic disease. The goal is to avoid costly and preventable complications. However, a three-year pilot study of medical home practices in Pennsylvania found modest improvements in quality of care and no reductions in hospitalizations, emergency department visits, or total costs of care. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) earlier this week.

The Pennsylvania study evaluated 32 primary care practices and six health plans participating in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chronic Care Initiative, one of the first medical home pilots in the state, between 2008 and 2011. Using data on approximately 120,000 patients, researchers compared quality, use of medical services and costs of care between the pilot practices and 29 other practices. During the three-year period, rates of quality significantly improved on only one out of 11 quality measures that included asthma care, cancer screening and overall diabetes control. 

Source: Reuters