Guided care can save Medicare $15 billion

BALTIMORE, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Guided care -- nurse-physician teams -- can save Medicare more than $15 billion every year, U.S. researchers estimate.

Researchers at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore suggest chronically ill patients need fewer healthcare resources and cost insurers less when closely supported by a nurse-physician primary care team.

"While guided care patients received more personal attention from their care team and had more physician office visits, the avoided expenses related to care in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and emergency departments more than offset all the costs of providing guided care," Dr. Bruce Leff, the lead author, said in a statement.

The randomized controlled trial, published in the American Journal of Managed Care, finds those in the primary care enhancement program -- guided care -- spent less time in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities and had fewer emergency room visits and home health episodes during the first eight months of the program.

"Guided care patients cost health insurers 11 percent less than patients in the control group," Dr. Chad Boult, the study's principal investigator, said in a statement