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UnitedHealthcare, IBM, and Arizona Physicians to Launch Groundbreaking Patient-Centered Healthcare Initiative

^{Published on 2009-02-09 08:22:07, Last Modified on 2009-02-09 08:23:46 - Market Wire}
 

PHOENIX & TUCSON, Ariz.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) company, and IBM (NYSE:IBM) announced plans for a collaboration with select primary-care physician practices in Arizona to launch a transformative new health care initiative called the "Patient-Centered Medical Home" (PCMH) model.

Aimed at strengthening the primary-care patient/physician relationship to enhance communication and service across the health care delivery system, the PCMH model provides comprehensive, information-supported primary care for children, youth and adults. In the PCMH model, patients receive more comprehensive and coordinated care from their primary-care physician, or "medical home," rather than fragmented and episodic care from various health care providers or facilities operating without all the information needed to define a safe context for care.

In the PCMH model, primary-care physicians partner with their patients to understand their needs and preferences, manage their health care, and facilitate any care needed from other professionals. The model places special emphasis on preventing disease and improving the care of chronic conditions, and emphasizes behavioral health support and patient education – not simply the diagnosis and treatment of injury and illness.

The new pilot program, open to UnitedHealthcare's employer-sponsored, Medicare Advantage and Medicaid health plan customers, will include four to six primary-care practices from UnitedHealthcare's physician network in Phoenix and Tucson. UnitedHealthcare will provide the selected primary-care practices with technology, infrastructure support and care coordination, with the goal of leveraging improved information systems to enhance patient access to care, the quality and safety of the care experience, and patient satisfaction with health care providers.

IBM, with some 386,000 employees around the world, led in the formation of the physician-employer Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative in 2006, of which most major U.S. trade associations, consumer groups and leading health benefits and services companies are now members. In 2007, IBM spent more than $21 million for Arizona employees and their dependents in health benefits costs. UnitedHealthcare is IBM's largest health plan in Arizona, serving nearly 11,000 beneficiaries. In support of the pilot, IBM will encourage these employees to seek primary-care services from the physicians participating in the pilot program.

UnitedHealthcare and IBM expect the PCMH model of care will, over time, assist in lowering overall health care costs for patients and their employers by reducing emergency room visits, hospitalizations and disabilities that result from the lack of immediate access to primary-care physicians when people have medical needs.

"UnitedHealthcare and IBM are committed to supporting primary-care physicians through the Patient-Centered Medical Home model, which provides for more centralized and comprehensive care that is focused on preventive care and disease prevention," said Dawn Bazarko, RN, MPH, UnitedHealthcare senior vice president, Clinical Innovation. "We believe the Patient-Centered Medical Home model enhances the delivery of higher-quality, more coordinated care, while improving outcomes and reducing health care costs."

The PCMH model of health care delivery provides benefits to physicians as well as patients. Primary-care physicians providing care based on the PCMH model stand to receive enhanced reimbursement in recognition of superior care coordination and improvements to access, communications, delivery of preventive and chronic care, and patient experience and satisfaction.

"We at IBM know that established and continuous access to a personal primary-care physician who really looks out for the whole person and not just a disease is proven to produce materially better health outcomes at lower costs. Still, our system in the United States is allowing the professionals trained to deliver this type of care to decline precipitously," said Martin Sepulveda, M.D., IBM vice president, Integrated Health Services. "Through our transformative pilot program with UnitedHealthcare, leading primary-care practices and our own employees in Arizona, we are stepping up both our commitment and our actions to assist in reversing that decline and make patient-centered primary care a reality for our own employees and those of other companies across the United States."

The PCMH model has been developed by primary-care physicians in the United States including the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Physicians, the American Osteopathic Association, and the American Academy of Pediatricians. Last year, UnitedHealth Group announced its collaboration with these organizations, a move that has led to the launch of this pilot program in Arizona. One of the goals of the model and the pilot program is to highlight the importance of primary care to patients' health and well-being. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, fewer than 8 percent of medical school graduates choose to go into primary care.

"UnitedHealth Group recognizes the importance of enhancing the quality capabilities and rewards for primary-care practice as a key element in the provision of coordinated, comprehensive patient-centered care," said Reed Tuckson, M.D., UnitedHealth Group's executive vice president and chief of medical affairs. "We are especially pleased to partner with an innovative company like IBM to seek new solutions for enhancing cost-effective care outcomes for their valued employees. We continue to applaud the leadership of our nation's primary-care specialty societies and physician practices in Arizona."

About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare ([ www.unitedhealthcare.com ]) provides a full spectrum of consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services to individuals, public sector employers and businesses of all sizes, including more than half of the Fortune 100 companies. The company organizes access to quality, affordable health care services on behalf of more than 26 million individual consumers, contracting directly with more than 580,000 physicians and care professionals and 4,900 hospitals to offer them broad, convenient access to services nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company.

About IBM

For more information about IBM, please visit [ www.ibm.com ].