MedCity News looks at Independence at Home, a Medicare experiment involving that old-fashioned thing called house calls, aimed at cutting costs and improving care.
MedCity says that in the first year of the experiment, “Housecall Providers of Portland, Ore., which had been operating at a loss, saved Medicare an average of almost $13,600 for each patient in the pilot project. Its share of the savings was $1.2 million. The house calls practice at MedStar Washington Hospital, in Washington, D.C., cut the cost of care an average of $12,000 per patient.”
“Medicare reported overall savings of $25 million in the pilot’s first year, officials reported last June. From that money, nine practices earned bonuses totaling nearly $12 million, including a $2.9 million payment to a practice in Flint, Mich.”
“After three practices dropped out, there are now 14 around the country participating in the project — including five sites run by the Visiting Physicians Association.”
Medicare officials are expected to announce the second round of payments in the program next month.
