Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan announced July 15 it has designated 15 Shiawassee County practices as patient-centered medical homes for the 2015 program year – meaning they have particular qualities and processes that help improve health care quality and outcomes by maintaining a coordinated, team focus on their patients’ health and wellness.
Included are: Arnold Medical Clinic; Durand Family Health Care; Fred Van Alstine, MD; Laingsburg Primary Care; Larkin Family Medicine, PLC; Memorial Family Practice; Memorial Pediatric Clinic; Mid-Michigan Physicians – Northside Family Medicine; Owosso Internal Medicine; Owosso Internal Medicine Associates; Owosso Medical Associates, PC; Pediatric and Adolescent Services; Perry Family Practice; Shiawassee Community Health Center; and Shiawassee Family Medicine.
Statewide, Blue Cross designated 1,551 primary care practices as patient-centered medical homes, encompassing more than 4,340 physicians.
The designated practices are recognized for intensified efforts to coordinate patients’ health care through prevention, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up services. Thanks to the Blue Cross program, doctors can better monitor their patients’ conditions, coordinate care with specialists and ensure people are getting the right care, at the right time, in the right setting.
For example, adult patients in designated PCMH practices had a 26 percent lower rate of hospital admissions for common conditions that respond to office-based care.
Blue Cross-designated PCMH practices also had an 8.7 percent lower rate of adult high-tech radiology use, and a 10.9 percent lower rate of adult ER visits. PCMH practices had a 16.3 percent lower rate of pediatric ER visits, and a 22.4 percent lower rate of pediatric ER visits for common chronic and acute conditions such as asthma.
The number of physicians earning PCMH designation from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has increased each year since the program launched in 2009, with 1,200 designated physicians. Designation extends for one year, July 1 through June 30. Physician practices work to earn designation each year. This year, 91 percent of practices designated in 2014 were re-designated.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are nonprofit corporations and independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
