Coordinated care program aims to save Medicaid millions Medical Home Network seeks to provide an alternative to emergency room visits for low-

income women and children

April 20, 2012|By Peter Frost, Tribune Reporter

On Easter, Keontae Barnes doubled over in pain, her

back and stomach tightening so much she thought she

was in labor.

Nearly eight months pregnant with her second child, a

girl, Barnes headed straight to the emergency

department at Holy Cross Hospital in the Chicago

Lawn neighborhood, just a few blocks from her home.

After a quick — and costly — examination, doctors

determined it was a false alarm; her pains were normal

for women in the later stages of pregnancy.

The next day, her primary care doctor at Chicago

Family Health Center called, asking Barnes what

happened and making sure she was OK.

"I was shocked. I said, 'How did you know?'" Barnes said. "She told me to come in the next day, and she gave me her

emergency pager and her email. She said if I ever have any questions or concerns, I can always get in touch, any time of

day."

About a week later, Barnes did just that. Instead of rushing to the ER with intense chest pains, she called her doctor. Acid

reflux. A trip to Walgreens solved the problem in short order and saved the state's Medicaid program and Holy Cross

thousands of dollars.

Those savings, applied across about 170,000 patients in Chicago's South and Southwest sides covered by a new program

called the Medical Home Network, could amount to up to $22 million in 2012, officials said.

While merely a ripple in the state's nearly $15 billion in annual Medicaid spending, Illinois officials are watching the

nonprofit program closely, hoping the results point the way to more coordinated and efficient care across the state.

Funded solely through a charitable grant from Chicago's Comer Science and Education Foundation and launched at the

end of February, the Medical Home Network focuses primarily on low-income women and children who seek medical

attention in emergency rooms and return home, often with no medical follow-up and limited understanding of how to use

the health care system.

To bring down costs and improve medical care in some of Chicago's most poverty-stricken neighborhoods, a coalition of

six hospitals and more than 100 clinics and physician practices are participating in the venture.

The idea is to keep patients like Barnes from using the emergency room for unnecessary visits and steer them into

primary care settings, a goal that Medical Home Network estimates can save between 2 and 4 percent of the $550 million

annual cost of providing care to the pool of patients. That amounts to between $11 million and $22 million in its first

year of operation.

Linked via an Internet portal accessed through proprietary software, providers are able to exchange real-time patient data,

including Medicaid claims history, prescriptions and visits to connected clinics or hospitals.