1. No House of Cards: Health plans are continuing to act on the link between stable housing and better health. Illinois’ Blue plan recently invested in housing to improve the health of homeless Chicagoans by partnering with private and public funders, investing as much as $1M in the project in Chicago’s Flexible Housing Pool. The two-year grant will fund housing, paired with intensive case management services, for people who are homeless and have been frequent visitors to hospital emergency rooms. The city of Chicago aims to host 750 units of supportive housing in the future. United Healthcare so far has invested in 80 communities across 18 states, resulting in 4,500 new homes in communities that also offer a host of health care services and social services such as job training and adult education. United, which began investing in housing in 2011, had Medicaid data that showed ER use dropping 60% and cost of care 50% lower for people with access to a housing initiative.
2. Houston, We Don’t Have A Problem: In May, Humana subsidiary Partners in Primary Care announced it would collaborate with the University of Houston to open 5 senior-focused, primary care centers in and around Houston. Three of these centers are already open, with two more scheduled to open this fall. They host a mixture of staff, which could include on-site pharmacists, clinical advocates, and behavioral health professionals, in addition to physicians and nurses. The centers also function as community centers to offer free health and fitness programming, and partnerships with local food banks and community organizations. Noticeably, they accept not only Humana Medicare/ Advantage insurance, but also Aetna, Cigna, WellCare of Texas and TexanPlus. Others here (namely Aetna, Wellcare, Walgreens and BCBS of TX) are making their own primary care investment. We will explore implications during a Friday Forum call in September. Stay tuned.
3. Vascular Diagnostics: United HealthCare will have a new preauthorization process for lower extremity vascular angiograms for commercial, Medicare Advantage and Community Plan patients starting in October. Some claims data showed that providers were using lower extremity vascular angiograms before less-invasive diagnostic approaches.
4. McEnroe The Boat Ashore: Halleluiah, I finally get John McEnroe’s point. The tennis great rarely believed the baseline official had it right and his iconic, if not incredulous stance serves as a metaphor for healthcare leaders today trying to figure out the right baseline target for total cost of care, particularly as providers start having success in the so-called first set of value-based contracts. Figuring out the initial baseline is one thing, but then how does the insurer adjust if the doctors miss it or beat it, if our shot is too close to call, or if the baseline moves? How should the contract change? Our poll sheds some light: click here
5. Extra Point: My daughter’s shin splints may keep her from making the freshman field hockey team this weekend, sending her potentially into a not-so-uncommon struggle to balance life without activity and the social benefits of team sports. Parenting teens through these seemingly end-of-the-world moments makes diaper changing seem as easy as toasting waffles. If I’ve learned anything with Sophie, it’s to talk about anything other than the problem or the pain….to get her to laugh about when she would poop her pants as we walked up to communion and Father Mesler would strangely run out of hosts just as I came to the front of the line. But I’m no expert and 9 times out of 10 I can’t break through. She’s 14, sometimes going on 21, sometimes still 7. But I can tell you I’m beginning to understand what my dad has taught me all these years about pain and sports and the importance of strength and conditioning. It’s why the recent efforts here by some PT groups to start athletic training programs coupled with sports psychology counselors and adolescent mental health therapists is innovative and certainly needed. Parents are usually unequipped to talk to kids after injury, not to mention help them prevent it. I know I am.