How We Do It

This new feature describes how ACHP member health plans are making health care better by engaging patients in their care, holding down costs and building stronger communities.

Case Study: Engaging Patients in Their Care.  A key to lowering health care cost trends is helping people play an active role in their own health. ACHP member HealthPartners of Minneapolis invests in proactive telephone coaching, smoking cessation programs, fitness club fee reimbursement, and other customized approaches resulting in fewer heart attacks, lower diabetes incidence, and reduced insurance claims among members. Click here for the full case study.

Case Study: Investing in Outcomes, Creating Value. To improve patient care and reduce preventable hospital admissions, Group Health Cooperative in Seattle invests in a program to streamline discharge procedures and improve communications, helping the health plan decrease hospital readmission rates, improve patient satisfaction, and save more than $50 million in unnecessary hospital costs in one year. Click here for the full case study.

Case Study: Building Stronger Communities. Since 2008, ACHP member Priority Health of Grand Rapids, Michigan, has provided children covered by Medicaid with greater access to health care services through a patient-centered medical home, helping improve the health of all children in Michigan, not just Priority Health members. By helping local pediatricians increase same-day office visits, for example, health outcomes improved, and hospital admissions and emergency visits declined. Click here for the full case study.

A PDF of the studies can also be found in the Attachments box on the right side of this page.