Hospitals

3 things top companies can copy from GE’s medical home efforts in Ohio

General Electric (GE) forges the opposite route of many large companies as it prepares to deal with Obamacare. It’s working directly with hospitals and doctors to improve care and reduce costs, the New York Times reports. In GE’s hometown in Cincinnati, more than 100 doctors’ practices have converted to medical homes because of their push. […]

By Lindsey Alexander on September 27, 2013

General Electric (GE) forges the opposite route of many large companies as it prepares to deal with Obamacare. It’s working directly with hospitals and doctors to improve care and reduce costs, the New York Times reports.

In GE’s hometown in Cincinnati, more than 100 doctors’ practices have converted to medical homes because of their push.

While major employers everywhere are going to need to consider how to reduce cost while still providing health coverage, GE is setting itself apart as a leader. Here are three takeaways companies can take from GE whether they choose the medical homes route or no.

presented by
  1. Work directly within the healthcare system, with hospitals and doctors. Rather than deal in a world of the theoretical, GE worked to strike up deals for its employees at hospitals (such as the orthopedic surgery deal at a hospital in New York).
  2. Involve the community. A large part of GE’s success is from including Cincinnati’s leaders and investing in change at a local level.

    From the article:

    Early results are promising: patients enrolled in medical homes had 3.5 percent fewer visits to the emergency room and 14 percent fewer hospital admissions over the four years from 2008 through 2012. G.E. plans to ask an outside firm to do a more detailed analysis.

    And, conversely, the city feels the burn when its not included, such as the decision to partner with a New York hospital:

    The decision doesn’t always sit well with the home team. In Cincinnati, the UC Health System, which includes an academic medical center that also serves the area’s major source of care for the uninsured, says it would welcome a similar opportunity to provide joint replacements for G.E., but executives say they simply cannot afford to offer significant discounts. “We don’t have the resources to cut deals,” said Dr. Myles Pensak, an executive for UC Health.

  3. Be innovative. Whether you welcome this direction for employer healthcare or see it as a misstep, you have to give GE credit for experimenting while many major businesses are still struggling to get their acts together. Being ahead of the game and allowing time for experiment, trial and error will set GE up for success if it continues to work wisely.