We’re expanding our in-home care program for seniors with multiple chronic conditions

For the past two years, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has been working to implement in-home health care solutions for chronically ill seniors.

Blue Cross recently announced it will expand a program for in-home care services for some of our most vulnerable members. It builds on a program offering high-intensity, in-home care services for UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust Medicare Advantage members in Southeast Michigan. We now plan to expand these services to more than 85,000 of our Medicare Advantage members across the Lower Peninsula.

“This program is expected to help our provider partners better serve a segment of our highest needs population, which represents 19% of MA membership,” said Todd Van Tol, executive vice president for Health Care Value.

URMBT program
The URMBT program launched in October 2021, using the services of Landmark Health LLC. Landmark Health is an independent company that provides Blue Cross with care management services.

For the first four months of the program, more than 2,000 in-home visits took place and more than 1,400 members participated in the program.

“URMBT was a well-suited starting point for launching this program due the high level of need within their membership and the interest of their leadership to a new home-based model of care,” explained Lori Aronson, vice president for Care Delivery Solutions.

To read some success stories of how this program has benefited chronically ill seniors, see this article.

Program expansion
The newly expanded program reflects a “home first when possible” philosophy that supports some of our most vulnerable members with the services they need while both reducing costs and risks they might face in an institutional setting. It’s all part of our health care delivery transformation efforts that focus on value-based care for all our members.

“The program takes a physician-led, interdisciplinary team approach to complement office-based primary care, with services such as care management, behavioral health, medication management, 24/7 nurse triage and urgent care,” said Dr. James Grant, senior vice president and chief medical officer. “It also incorporates community health advocates to better support the member.”

Members using this program are treated at home, avoiding a potential multiweek medical stay in a hospital.

Key elements
The program has four basic elements:

1. Support frail elders managing multiple conditions.
2. Meet patients in the comfort of their homes.
3. Deliver geriatric care that includes medical, behavioral and urgent care.
4. Coordinate with their primary care provider, offering mobile geriatric support.

“By providing defined patient populations with more targeted care, we can improve member experience and coordination of care, resulting in better overall health and reduced costs,” said Laurie Chrostowski, director, care delivery solutions.

More information

• We’ll be providing more information about this program in future newsletter articles and other communications.
• For more information on our home-based care management and utilization management programs for Blue Cross and BCN members, you can refer to our Home-based services document that’s posted on ereferrals.bcbsm.com.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are nonprofit corporations and independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.