IBM is launching what they are calling the "Primary Care Spring." At the risk of upstaging Occupy Spring they are seeking to revolutionize the way they take care of their employees by widely promulgating the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH). They are certainly not the first, but they represent a growing number of large insurers that have jumped on the wagon.
In a YouTube video presentation by Dr. Paul Grundy of IBM that can be found at the above link he describes 3 trends he is seeing:
1. Cost: good comprehensive coordinated patient-centered care saves money
2. Data: we can now help physicians make better clinical decisions because we now have the data needed to do so (how could he give a presentation without mentioning "Watson"?)
3. On-line asynchronous care: medical homes succeed because they allow for on-line and asynchronous care where you don't have to see your doctor to be treated and they don't have to see you to get paid. In this new information age our children will not put up with receiving care any other way.
In short, this is nothing new but it is all coming together across the country. The government, insurers, employers, providers, and patients are all recognizing that accessible, coordinated, patient-centered care really does save money and make people healthier.
You CAN have your cake and eat it too.
-JKR
