In an effort to provide lower cost, seamless health care closer to where patients live, Kaiser Permanente of Georgia is undergoing a major expansion – adding 11 new neighborhood medical offices in metro Atlanta over the past 16 months.
The facilities are a one-stop shop for basic care with multiple services such as primary care, pediatrics and a pharmacy under one roof, said Dr. Rob Schreiner, executive medical director for Kaiser in Georgia. The nonprofit health plan’s latest addition, a 6,400-square-foot, $2.3 million facility in Fayetteville, opened Tuesday, and another in downtown Atlanta is slated to open in the spring.
The marketplace is “demanding lower health care costs, or at least flat health care costs, and more value for the dollar that is spent,” Schreiner said.
Nationwide, medical providers are moving toward more integrated care in an effort to lower costs and remain competitive. Some are creating facilities with an array of services in one location. Others are using electronic medical record systems and online technology to foster better communication and collaboration among physicians.
By working together, providers can focus on preventive care and catching illnesses before they get worse and more expensive to treat, said Dr. Harry Strothers, president of the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians.
Kaiser, which has 240,000 members and 28 offices in Georgia, has been providing integrated care since its founding 65 years ago, Schreiner said. “We want to own the responsibility from A-to-Z.”
Coordinating services produce lower cost and higher quality care, as well as lower premiums for members, Schreiner said. “You don’t have duplication of testing. You don’t have medical errors.”
The new offices are a key part of Kaiser’s 10-year business plan to boost its metro Atlanta market share from 5 percent to 15 or 20 percent, Schreiner said.
So far, it seems to be working. Membership grew 9 percent in January – one of its largest increases to date, Schreiner said, and Kaiser has added Walmart, SunTrust and MARTA as clients.
Southeast Permanente Medical Group, which provides services to Kaiser members only, has also added 100 physicians in the past 18 months and plans to add another 40 this year, bringing the total to about 400. Schreiner, who heads up the medical group, said physicians are paid based on quality of care and patient satisfaction versus a more traditional fee-for-service system where doctors are reimbursed for each procedure or test.
Overall, experts say, the industry is moving toward a results-based payment system that gives providers an incentive to avoid costly inefficiencies.
Medicare is beginning to bundle payments, so hospitals may get paid less if a pneumonia patient is re-admitted within 30 days for example, said Ken Thorpe, a health policy expert at Emory University. “That means you really have to integrate what’s going on between inpatient and outpatient care.”
For Kaiser in Georgia, half of the care has historically been in the hands of community physicians using a fee-for-service structure, but it is working to have Southeast Permanente doctors eventually provide all of the care, Schreiner said. “It’s about outcomes for the patient, not what’s good for the doctor.”
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