Medical Homes With Shared Savings Financing Increased Primary Care Visits & Decreased Unnecessary ER Visits

Patients of primary care practices participating in a pilot medical home intervention that featured shared savings made 28% more primary care visits and 16.5% fewer unnecessary emergency department visits than patients seen by a comparison group of primary care practices. The pilot was launched by the Pennsylvania Chronic Care Initiative (PACCI) in 2009. In addition to making more primary care visits, patients at the PACCI pilot practices made 16.5% fewer ambulatory specialist visits. The PACCI pilot practices also had better performance on four quality of care process measures for diabetes care and breast cancer screening.

The PACCI included . . .