An Untapped Opportunity For Health Care Progress: Redesigning Care For High-Need Patients

While uncertainty and debate about health care reform remains, there is near-universal agreement on the need to improve care delivery and health outcomes and decrease the rate at which spending continues to grow. An underrecognized but crucial component to achieving these goals is redesigning care for “high-need patients”—in other words, the small cohort of patients with complex needs who represent the greatest usage of the health care system. Currently, 1 percent of patients account for more than 20 percent of health care expenditures, and 5 percent account for nearly half of the nation’s spending on health care, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Driving these costs for high-need patients are the functional limitations that impact patients’ daily living and ability to cope with health challenges, leading to their use of health care and social services that are often too late and poorly matched to their needs. A 2014 survey conducted by the Commonwealth Fund found that high-need patients are highly susceptible to lack of coordination within the health care system and are more likely to experience cost-related barriers to accessing care, compared to other older adults. A 2016 Commonwealth Fund survey found that nearly two-thirds of high-need patients reported hardships with housing, meals, or utilities and that this population was also more likely to report feeling socially isolated, compared with the general adult population. Providing...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Innovations in Care Delivery Population Health Quality 21st Century Cures Alternative Payment Models Chronic Care high-need patients social services Source Type: blogs