Texas can improve care and cut costs with the medical home
By Greg Sheff, M.D.
I was fortunate to be one in a group of primary care physicians who met with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst this February to discuss possibilities of payment reform in Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the private insurance market. This meeting comes on the heels of the introduction of two major pieces of legislation, Senate bills 7 and 8. These bills would implement a host of pilot projects to test bundled payments, payments based on episodes of care, and quality incentives. It continues the positive momentum the state needs to move us away from a fractured health care system into one that provides the right care for Texans.
The unrelenting march of increasing health care costs is unsustainable, both for Texas and for the nation. Payment reform that aligns physician and hospital incentives with our society’s goals—affordable, coordinated, evidence-based, quality-measured care—is critical to rein in health care costs. The patient-centered medical home, driven by a strong primary care workforce, is a proven cost-effective method for delivering this coordinated and integrated care.
Earlier this year, Austin Regional Clinic (ARC) joined a multi-year medical home pilot administered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX). The pilot was initiated in large part in response to Texas legislation requiring the Employees Retirement System (ERS), the self-funded insurer for state employees, to experiment with alternate payment and delivery models in an attempt to reduce the state’s ever-increasing health care costs. We are one of five physician groups in the state participating. Our program serves roughly 45,000 patients, including both the ERS (whose health care benefits are administered by BCBSTX) and BCBSTX fully-insured populations.
As we have seen with our ARC Medical Home Program, there is a definite tipping-point phenomenon in getting providers to commit the resources necessary to proactively coordinate patient care. We have been approached by a number of payers investigating our capability to transform our care delivery model. However, not until we were approached with a payer as large as ERS were we able to make a compelling internal business case for investing the resources to transform our own workflows.
For me, this is the real pearl in the ERS Medical Home initiative: The Legislature, with control of Medicaid, CHIP, and ERS/Teacher Retirement System payments, has the opportunity to change—not by mandate but by example—the cost of care delivered across Texas.
However, a primary-care-led health care system cannot exist without actively nurturing and growing the primary care workforce. Since its inception, ARC has emphasized the importance of long-term doctor/patient relationships, coordination of care, and a strong primary care physician base—three major tenets of the medical home model. Drawing upon ARC’s 30 years of experience, I cannot overstate the importance of supporting initiatives to increase the number of medical school graduates choosing a career in primary care.
Payment and delivery system reform for ERS/TRS, Medicaid, and CHIP patients, coupled with an investment in growing our primary care workforce, helps not only the Texas budget in the short and long term, but provides the seeds to transform all care in Texas.
Gregory Sheff, M.D., is the medical director for the ARC Medical Home Program.