Medicare Advantage

Community health plans score well for hospitalization outcomes

Ever-growing cost is the reason for the noisy, heated arguments in Washington, D.C., about health care.

Quietly, community health plans have provided at least a partial answer.

A recent report by Dr. Gerard Anderson, a Johns Hopkins University researcher, shows that the United States could save as much as $10 billion every year if traditional Medicare patients received the same care now provided by 13 community health plans.

The study’s author looked at data from 13 members of the Alliance of Community Health Plans, including CareOregon, for hospital readmission rates and preventable emergency room visits and hospitalizations.

These health plans provide robust care management, routine follow-up phone contact with patients, and other critical supports to patients and their physicians so that enrollees have the best chance of adhering to a treatment plan and staying healthy.

(Read the full press release from CareOregon.)