Oregon Health Plan members are making fewer visits to the emergency room and more visits to primary-care providers, according to state data released last week.
Per-person spending growth fell by 1 percentage point.
The numbers suggest Oregon’s year-old coordinated care organizations may be having success at improving preventive care while lowering long-term costs for the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s version of Medicaid. In exchange for nearly $2 billion from the federal government, Oregon promised that coordinated-care organizations would reduce the growth in Medicaid spending without skimping on care.
Gov. John Kitzhaber has long argued that spending more on preventive care, properly managing chronic conditions and moving away from paying doctors for each service they perform could avoid expensive hospital stays and save money. “As we open up healthcare to more Oregonians, this model is showing early promise of innovation that can spread across the health care system,” Kitzhaber said.
From January to June, the rate of ER visits decreased by 9% and hospitalizations for congestive heart failure dropped 29% compared with 2011. Visits to primary-care providers were up 18%.
