$500,000 Grant Funds Love to Slash Medicare Readmissions

PHOENIX, Aug. 9, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Love, they say, makes the world go round. At John C. Lincoln Health Network, Phoenix, love also reduces Medicare hospital readmissions.

Employing military medics to care for discharged Medicare patients like beloved grandparents has slashed Lincoln's readmission rates to an astonishing 6 percent.

National average for designated Medicare readmissions is 20 percent, costing CMS some $17 billion annually.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has mandated hospitals to maintain the health of Medicare hospital patients with congestive heart failure, heart attacks or pneumonia, so fewer are readmitted within 30 days after discharge. CMS offers financial incentives for readmission reduction and levies penalties for increases.

John C. Lincoln mobilized a cadre of veterans as transition coaches who provide Medicare patients with a personal touch  – helping them with medical instructions, prescriptions, doctor appointments, nutrition, transportation and safety.

Reducing readmissions produces significant savings that far exceed transition coach costs. But initial assistance to maximize program effectiveness was needed.

Del E. Webb Foundation stepped in with a $500,000 two-year grant to expand the transition coach team to 14.

"Our primary goal is not chasing statistics," stresses Transition Coach medical director John Lees, DO. "It is helping at-risk patients as would their own children or grandchildren . . . to love on them and ensure their everyday needs are met, so they don't relapse for preventable reasons."

Hiring veterans harnesses their strategic abilities and disciplined initiative to address patients' needs. Ironically, in spite of their rigorous medical training and experience, military medics are unqualified for most civilian healthcare positions.

The transition team attributes their success to:

• Veterans relate well with patients.
• Veterans are geared to recognize and solve problems, creatively and immediately.
• Transition coaches have instant access to patients' electronic health records on a laptop or smart phone.

"We hope our program, winner of the 2012 White House Healthcare Policy Challenge, will become a model for the nation," Dr. Lees says.

"More than 20,000 returning medics and corpsmen need jobs and could help Medicare patients released from American hospitals," he adds. "Wouldn't it be ideal if they'd do what our transition coaches are doing?"

Read more: www.jcl.com/news/del-e-webb-foundation-grant-expands-transition-coach-services .

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SOURCE John C. Lincoln Health Network