With Medicare beneficiaries who have four or more chronic conditions accounting for 90 percent of Medicare hospital readmissions and 74 percent of Medicare costs (both 2010 figures), policy-makers are constantly looking for better ways to serve such individuals.

Academic research suggests that these beneficiaries need a variety of non-medical social interventions and supports, most of which are not covered by Medicare.

With this in mind, the Bipartisan Policy Center has prepared a review of current regulatory, payment, and other barriers that prevent providers and insurers from meeting some of the non-medical needs of high-need, high-cost patients that result in such high health care costs and hospital readmissions rates.

Many of these high-need, high-cost patients live in low-income communities served by private safety-net hospitals, making this a subject of particular interest to NAUH and its members.

Many of these high-need, high-cost patients live in low-income communities served by private urban safety-net hospitals, making this a subject of particular interest to NAUH and its members.

Among the care models this review considers are Medicare Advantage plans, Medicare Advantage Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans, Medicare Shared Savings Program Accountable Care Organizations, Next Generation ACOs, Comprehensive Primary Care Plus Model Participants, and Programs for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE).

Find this all in the Bipartisan Policy Center report Challenges and Opportunities in Caring for High-Need, High-Cost Medicare Patients, which is available here.