Illinois Health Connect medical director Dr. Margaret Kirkegaard and Dr. Robert Phillips, director of The Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care were co-presenters at the recent Annual Stakeholders’ Conference for Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative in Washington, D.C.
The Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative is a coalition of major employers, consumer groups, patient quality organizations, health plans, labor unions, hospitals, clinicians and many others who have joined together to develop and advance the patient-centered medical home (PCMH). The Collaborative has well over 900 members.
Dr. Kirkegaard provided a description of Illinois Health Connect (IHC) to nearly 400 conference attendees. Dr. Phillips described the preliminary results of a Graham Center evaluation of the IHC program. The principal findings of the study show that between 2007 and 2010, Illinois Health Connect saved the state $531 million in healthcare costs with a reduction in emergency department visits and hospitalizations.
The Graham Center evaluation was supported by a grant from the Commonwealth Fund, a national, private foundation based in New York City that supports independent research on healthcare issues and makes grants to improve healthcare practice and policy .
