Hartford Grantee Eric Coleman’s Care Transitions Program in KHN
On October 7, 2013, Kaiser Health News released an article which describes the 1 percent of patients who battle multiple chronic conditions and consume 21 percent of the nearly $1.3 trillion spent on health care in 2010. By contrast, the bottom 50 percent of patients accounted for 2.8 percent of the spending that year. These “frequent flyers” often wind up into the hospitals due to difficulty navigating a fragmented health care system. Efforts around the country are underway to lower costs and improve care for this population; many programs are modeled after Hartford grantee and MacArthur genius Dr. Eric Coleman’s Care Transitions program, based at the University of Denver--an effective method for building self-management skills of patients and their families to ensure their needs are met during the transition from hospital to home, resulting in lower hospital readmission rates and lower medical costs.
On October 7, 2013, Kaiser Health News released an article which describes the 1 percent of patients who battle multiple chronic conditions and consume 21 percent of the nearly $1.3 trillion spent on health care in 2010. By contrast, the bottom 50 percent of patients accounted for 2.8 percent of the spending that year. These “frequent flyers” often wind up into the hospitals due to difficulty navigating a fragmented health care system. Efforts around the country are underway to lower costs and improve care for this population; many programs are modeled after Hartford grantee and MacArthur genius Dr. Eric Coleman’s Care Transitions program, based at the University of Denver--an effective method for building self-management skills of patients and their families to ensure their needs are met during the transition from hospital to home, resulting in lower hospital readmission rates and lower medical costs.
Read “Costliest 1 Percent of Patients Account for 21 Percent of U.S. Health Spending” here.
