Marshfield Clinic Health System (MCHS) www.marshfieldclinic.org and Contessa Health http://contessahealth.com have formed a new partnership to operate a Home Hospitalization Program for members of Security Health Plan.
The Home Hospitalization Program to be powered by Contessa Health will enable patients to receive hospital level care in the comfort of their homes at a prospective bundled rate. Marshfield Clinic physicians will be able to provide members with in-home care for acute medical conditions.
Members of Marshfield’s Security Health Plan can receive hospital-level care for congestive heart failure, COPD, deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, urinary tract infections, cellulitis, and pneumonia. The team of care providers deliver all necessary medical visits, lab testing, and medical equipment at a prospective bundled rate for a 30 day time period.
Chris Meyer, Director of Virtual Health at Marshfield said, “The six conditions selected for this program often require fairly routine hospitalizations. For example, congestive heart failure patients sometimes are admitted because they require intravenous diuretics to address water retention. By providing treatment in the patient’s home, the chance for readmission is reduced.”
Contessa is in talks with several other health plans to use the program in their networks. The company’s partnership with Marshfield targets the traditional hospital-at-home care model, which focuses on Medicare patients with acute illnesses. However, Contessa also has a surgical program for patients recovering from total joint replacements and spine procedures available through commercial plans.
Hospital-at-home programs are not covered by CMS www.cms.gov. Still the CMS Innovation Center http://innovation.cms.gov gave Mount Sinai Health System www.mountsinai.org in New York City, a $9.6 million grant to pilot a program with the goal to develop a bundled payment program.