Wraparound services like behavioral health, social work, dietetics along with primary care could reduce healthcare costs, improve outcomes
This study might bring cheer to health policymakers in India, as it starts to set up 153000 ‘health and wellness Centres’ in different parts of the country.
A new study shows how offering on-site dietetics, social work and other wraparound services at the clinics, not only improved patient outcomes but also saved millions of dollars in hospitalization costs.
The wraparound services, co-located within the primary care setting of the large urban safety-net health provider (Eskenazi Health in Indianapolis), were associated with a reduction in the number of hospitalizations and emergency room visits.
“Providing non-medical wraparound services in conjunction with primary care is one strategy to improve patient outcomes and reduce overall health care spending,” said Joshua Vest, lead author of the paper and an associate professor of health policy and management at the Fairbanks School of Public Health.
Researchers estimated that wraparound services potentially saved $8.2 million from 2011 to 2016, based on median hospitalization costs.
“Early intervention and effective chronic disease management are vital to keeping people out of the hospital and reducing the burden of illness on the patient and on the health care system,” said Dr. Lisa Harris, CEO of Eskenazi Health.
The Health group began providing various wraparound services including behavioral health, social work, dietetics, respiratory therapy for asthma education, patient navigation, pharmacist education, financial counseling and a medical-legal partnership in 2011.
Researchers estimated that wraparound services potentially saved $8.2 million from 2011 to 2016, based on median hospitalization costs.
These services were also associated with a 5 percent reduction in the number of emergency department visits in the year after the services were provided.
“Given that health and health care use are largely driven by social situations, environmental context and individual behavior, we believe that addressing these issues holds great promise for reducing costs and improving health outcomes,” said coauthor Halverson founding dean of the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI.
“Historically, the health care system has not addressed these drivers of health and health care costs,” Halverson added.
All patients in the study received at least one wraparound service. Counseling from a dietitian was the most common wraparound service, at 49 percent, followed by consultation with a social worker at 29 percent and behavioral health at 10 percent.