The Accountable Care Organization eBrightHealth has been able to reduce the cost of treating Medicare patients in Delaware.Started in 2016, eBrightHealth includes major health systems, private practices and federally qualified health centers up and down the state of Delaware, as well as medical providers in Pennsylvania and Maryland. It collectively represents 50,000 Medicare beneficiaries.
Each provider in the group shares in the overall savings when the ACO is able to collectively reduce the cost of treating Medicare patients by keeping them healthier.
In its first two years, the group collectively saved about $2 million. But in 2018 eBrightHealth saved more than $11 million compared to the federal benchmark.
President and CEO Christine Donohue-Henry says the numbers are a testament to the value-based care payment model.
“How can care be delivered differently in a way that’s going to improve outcomes, improve patient satisfaction and decrease costs, and certainly with these results it show we are moving the needle towards delivering value," said Donohue-Henry.
Donohue-Henry credits phone calls to patients to follow up with their care for the jump in savings.
“If we have patients that need additional education regarding diabetes or COPD, chronic disease like that that care managers can provide that. We are also able to check in with people frequently and make sure they are doing well with their medications, have what they need, don’t have symptoms and are feeling good at home,” said Donohue-Henry.
eBrightHealth collectively scored 88% in a metric measuring the quality of care in 2018. That’s down slightly from the year before.