Physicians taking part in a two-year medical home pilot program will soon have access to new technology designed to help them identify patient care opportunities.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, which is launching the medical home initiative, has signed a contract with Atlanta-based MDdatacor, Inc., to use the company's MDinsight software solution. MDinsight is designed to draw data from a physician's records, analyze it against evidence-based guidelines and identify additional care opportunities among that physician's patient population.
"Medical home models have the potential to aid reform efforts by reducing overall costs in the U.S. health system," said Tim Roche, co-founder, president and CEO of MDdatacor. "We know this firsthand because of the results our health plan customers have experienced through decreased hospital admissions and emergency room visits, dramatic improvement in physician and patient satisfaction, and a substantial return on investment."
BCBS of Kansas City, the largest not-for-profit health insurer in Missouri, provides coverage for roughly 1 million residents of the city and northwest part of the state. Company officials are calling on local internal medicine, family practice and pediatric physicians to take part in the medical home program, which is scheduled to begin this month.
"We are embarking on this initiative because we believe that a medical home model and access to more complete clinical data will help physicians treat the right patients at the right time, resulting in even better care and outcomes," said Blake Williamson, BCBSKC's vice president and senior medical director. "MDdatacor's data registry, a critical tool to make this happen, was the most comprehensive we reviewed and came with the strongest recommendations."
MDdatacor officials say their technology draws upon diverse data sources, including electronic medical record, practice management, lab and registry systems, aggregates that data and makes it available to physicians through a Web portal. For example, the system can help determine the number of diabetic patients, whose A1c blood sugar tests are above guidelines, prompting the physician to plan a more aggressive healthcare regimen that would work to reduce a patient's A1c number and avoid more costly medical problems later on.
According to MDdatacor officials, studies have shown that medical homes can help patients to control their healthcare issues better, reducing the chance of hospital visits for more costly treatments later on. Health plans use this data to drive improved patient and physician satisfaction, improving the quality of care and driving down the overall cost of care.
MDdatacor's client list numbers more than 7,000 physicians, company officials say, and includes Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Dakota, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Excellus BlueCRoss BlueShield, MVP Health Care and the Summa Health Network.