"Health coaches" guide post-ED care

When chronically ill patients are discharged from the emergency department, chances are they'll be back soon without further help. In response, health plans have increasingly been assigning "health coaches" to such patients, tasked with making sure patients are doing what they can to stay well. The health coaches, typically registered nurses, stay in regular touch with the patients, sometimes with home visits and sometimes over the phone, helping them schedule appointments, decipher medication labels and monitor symptoms.

Such programs are particularly helpful for elderly patients, who may suffer from multiple illnesses or cognitive impairments that cause them to forget key appointments and medications. They also make financial sense. One University of Colorado study found that health coaches could save health plans $845 per patient per year on hospital costs. Attracted by these numbers, growing numbers of private insurers are trialing coaching programs. Also, Medicare has launched a three-year pilot coaching program for about 115,000 fee-for-service patients with heart failure or diabetes.

To find out more about health coaches:
- read this article in The Courier-Journal

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Congress takes on ED overcrowding. Article

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