Mobile Integrated Healthcare: Preliminary Experience and Impact Analysis with a Medicare Advantage Population

Background: Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH) is a novel, patient-centered approach to population management. This concept creates a needs-matched, time appropriate assignment of one or more members of a multi-professional clinical team to care for patients on a scheduled or unscheduled basis. The selection of the site of care for scheduled interventions is driven by patient choice and, most often occurs in the patient's home; unscheduled interventions are guided by a 5-point triage system and, based on acuity, may be treated in the home, primary care office, urgent care or, rarely, in an emergency department. Methods: An MIH team was assigned to deliver a care coordination program for a Medicare Advantage PPO (MAPPO) population (55% female, 71.2 years mean age), with risk assignment and interventions designed to affect potentially avoidable utilization of Emergency Medical Services (EMS), emergency department, and medical inpatient admissions. Patients participating in the MIH program were compared with contemporaneous, risk-matched non-participants as well as to actuarially expected cost and utilization based on historical claim experience. Results: All measured trends demonstrated favorable results for patients participating in the MIH program when compared against a matched cohort: 19% decrease in emergency department per member per month (PMPM) cost, 21% decrease in emergency department utilization, 37% decrease in inpatient PMPM cost, 40% decrease inpatient utilization, all measures reached statistical significance. Member experience satisfaction scores and patient activation measures also showed favorable preliminary trends. Conclusion: This initial impact analysis of a MIH care coordination program for this MAPPO population demonstrates promising trends regarding utilization, cost, member experience and patient activation. These preliminary findings indicate both that implementation of such a program is feasible and strongly suggest meritorious impacts upon the health, experience and cost of care for the population.