Latest news with #OchsnerHealth
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Transforming Care: Reducing Hospital Admissions, Cutting Costs, and Boosting Patient Satisfaction
One year after collaborating with myLaurel, Ochsner Health reports a significant improvement. NEW ORLEANS, April 23, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In March of 2024, Ochsner Health, a leading nonprofit healthcare provider in the Gulf South, announced a partnership with myLaurel, a home-based acute and transitional care company tailored to the needs of frail, elderly, and medically complex patients. The goal was to provide a better experience for patients through streamlined care delivery, ultimately improving health outcomes and reducing out-of-pocket costs. Together, the organizations implemented myLaurel's Acute Care at Home™ program, which through timely in-home interventions and care coordination, helps to avoid low-acuity admissions from the Emergency Department (ED), reduce unnecessary hospital utilization, decrease readmission rates, and increase patient outcomes. After a full year of implementation, myLaurel and Ochsner Health confirmed the partnership's success. "Looking back at our one year together, I'm so excited by what we've accomplished in advancing patient care and the outcomes we've delivered," says Logan Davies, MD, Medical Director of Hospital Access and Throughput at Ochsner Medical Center. "Through close integration with our hospital staff and operational system—even daily rounding with our patient teams—our teams work together to identify and enroll patients who benefit from Acute Care at Home services. Delivering in-home and transitional care in such a patient-centered way has led to significant results and positive patient outcomes, all while reducing costs for patients and enhancing overall value for the health system." The list of impressive results from the partnership include: 30 days post discharge from ED or observation unit: 33% reduction in ED utilization 92% prevention in initial admission rates Over 90% reduction in 15-day readmission rates 30 days post discharge from inpatient unit:* 49% reduction in readmissions Estimated $1.8 million in value*Compared with a non-participating control group matched on medical and social acuity. Overall Program Results 96 average patient net promoter score 90 average provider net promoter score 34% decrease in the out-of-pocket cost for patients using myLaurel Over 3,200 bed days saved Dr. Davies explained how saving bed days directly impacted others needing medical care. "When Ochsner patient teams can discharge eligible patients from the ED and hospital units, we can safely care for these patients at-home with myLaurel's services. By getting patients home sooner, keeping them well, and seamlessly coordinating their care we have were created over 3,200 bed days and allowed for more than 640 new admissions in our community for patients who need them most." The Acute Care at Home program serves medically complex patients with multiple comorbidities and those with a high risk for hospital readmission. According to Dr. Marcy Carty, myLaurel's President and Chief Medical Officer, the company is highly regarded for its clinical expertise and ability to safely treat and keep patients in their homes. During the two weeks myLaurel clinicians provided at-home care for Ochsner patients, the company assumed all risk, underscoring its confidence in the program. "Our partners and patients benefit by knowing myLaurel is committed to avoiding acute hospital utilizations," she said. "We have the diagnostics and formulary to manage new symptoms and escalations as they arise, manage treatment plans, medications, and provide patient and caregiver education." Both companies are proud of the great start for this pilot program. Dr. Davies added "with the success of this program, we are bringing this innovative care delivery system to all seniors across Ochsner's main campus, not just those in value-based arrangements. We also hope to be a model of innovation for other healthcare systems seeking to improve hospital utilization and patient satisfaction." The organization has plans to launch the program in several additional hospitals in 2025. About myLaurelHeadquartered in New York, NY, myLaurel is a pioneering healthcare company dedicated to elevating patient experiences and fostering significant cost efficiencies for hospitals, health systems, ACOs, and payers along the eastern and southern coasts of the U.S. myLaurel partners with payers, health systems and providers and puts their fees at risk. myLaurel offers its unique care model to more than 100,000 covered lives. Specializing in tailored home-based care solutions, the company focuses on enhancing health outcomes for patients with frailty and complex conditions. For further details about myLaurel, visit About Ochsner HealthOchsner Health is the leading nonprofit healthcare provider in the Gulf South, delivering expert care at its 46 hospitals and more than 370 health and urgent care centers. For 13 consecutive years, U.S. News & World Report has recognized Ochsner as the No. 1 hospital in Louisiana. Additionally, Ochsner Children's has been recognized as the No. 1 hospital for kids in Louisiana for three consecutive years. Ochsner inspires healthier lives and stronger communities through a combination of standard-setting expertise, quality and connection not found anywhere else in the region. In 2023, Ochsner Health cared for more than 1.5 million people from every state in the nation and 65 countries. Ochsner's workforce includes more than 38,000 dedicated team members and over 4,700 employed and affiliated physicians. Media Contact: Becky Smithbsmith@ 908.405.2185 View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE myLaurel
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Louisiana spent $2.4B to improve Medicaid. A lot of the money went to administrative functions.
The Louisiana Legislative Auditor has questioned spending in the state's Manage Care Incentive Payment program for Medicaid. (Photo by) Louisiana spent nearly $2.4 billion over five years on hospital programs meant to improve health care outcomes for people in the Medicaid program. Yet hundreds of millions of dollars of that funding went to administrative functions not directly related to improving patients' lives, according to a report from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor's office released Monday. The Manage Care Incentive Payment program [MCIP] allows the six private health insurance companies who manage Louisiana Medicaid to receive a 5% higher rate per enrollee if they provide better outcomes for Medicaid recipients and deliver health services efficiently. It is supposed to promote services such as cancer screenings, blood testing for diabetics, identifying childhood obesity, smoking cessation and reducing emergency room trips for Medicaid patients. But the majority of Louisiana's MCIP funds have gone toward activities that do not enhance the health of Medicaid beneficiaries, Legislative Auditor Michael Waguespack said in a letter attached to his report. The auditor raised questions about spending in the program from September 2019 through March 2024. Gov. John Bel Edwards was in office for all but the final three months of that period. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE During that time, the health department paid out $437.2 million of the program's $2.39 billion for submitting reports correctly, meeting deadlines and holding annual meetings – functions the auditor said are not directly related to improving Medicaid patients' health. Additionally, the health department spent just $440.2 million (18%) of the total funding on reaching health care goals that the auditor could measure and verify. The remaining $1.5 billion (45%) was spent on goals that could not be assessed by an outside party, according to the report. The auditor also concluded that $1.1 billion (45.3%) of the $2.39 billion in total funds were used for activities other than payments to the hospitals that provided the program services. The state health department has agreed to make changes the auditor recommended to promote accountability in the Medicaid improvement program. But leaders with the Quality and Outcome Improvement Network, which is part of Ochsner Health and ran one of the programs in question, strongly disagreed with the auditor's conclusions, issuing a 26-page rebuttal. 'A performance audit should address the performance of the program, and the Report does not,' network executive director Lane Sisung said in response. In practice, Louisiana's largest hospital systems were left in charge of executing MCIP, though the health insurance companies who run Medicaid received $71.8 million from the health department before passing off the rest of the money to the entities offering the services. '[The state health department] has not monitored how the [health insurance companies] or [networks set up by hospitals] have used MCIP program funds despite having the authority to do so,' Waguespack wrote. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Sisung, in the response from the Ochsner network, said the auditor underestimated the impact of spending money to set up the services made to improve health outcomes. Some investment was necessary up front in order to see improvements in bloodwork for diabetics, for example. '[Managed Care Incentive Payment] teaches a person to fish, rather than handing them fish,' Sisung wrote. But the state's approach to running the incentive programs likely also drove up administrative costs. Ochsner and the other major hospital systems in Louisiana did not want to work together, so the state created two independent networks to tackle Medicaid improvements. The Quality Improvement Network, or QIN, involves hospitals Ochsner owns and manages. The Louisiana Quality Network, or LQN, is made up of other hospital systems, including Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health, LCMC Health and Willis-Knighton. The state health department gave each network different goals and public health problems to tackle that did not overlap with each other. For example, the Ochsner network was to focus on improving diabetic outcomes and lowering emergency room visits, while LQN worked on improving breast cancer screenings and early autism detection. The auditor appeared particularly frustrated with the QIN run by Ochsner, which refused to turn over all the financial documents the auditors office requested. Waguespack said the lack of transparency from QIN potentially violates the Louisiana Constitution, which prohibits certain types of payment structures for public programs. Sisung strongly disagreed with this assessment in the network's response. Representatives from the Louisiana Quality Network struck a far more agreeable tone to the auditor's suggestions for improvement but also pushed back on some of his assertions. In their joint response, network leaders said the federal government, which provides for most of the program's money, allows for the current structure of the incentive payments, and that the state may not have the authority to impose tighter restrictions. 'Federal law does not dictate how providers or contractors 'use' Medicaid payments once received in exchange for services provided or incentive milestones met,' they said in a letter to Waguespack.
