Abstract:

Rising healthcare costs in nearly all nations, particularly in the United States, has been posing major challenges to stakeholders in healthcare industry.  Each actor has been developing new strategies to mitigate costs. Care coordination is one of the methods many healthcare providers have been applying to remedy this problem. Cambridge Health Alliance - a public, safety net health care system serving the Greater Boston area- has been piloting a care coordination program for one of its population cohorts since November 2011. This paper evaluates the possible impact of the program on healthcare costs, analyzes cost structure for different sub-populations to understand which groups contribute most to cost reductions, and offer suggestions to achieve the highest saving. The analyses conclude there is room for curbing the cost growth when the program targets the highest cost patient and the program succeeds in changing the cost concentration of healthcare spending. Nevertheless, the analyses need to be developed further, using bigger population and a longer intervention period. Finally, it is important to support the program with other policies such as a gate keeping system, preventive care, and new alternative payment systems to sustain an impact on costs in the long-run.

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