In a medical era characterized by increased technology and a multitude of ways for patients to connect with physicians remotely, it may be surprising that a throwback concept such as the house call is again coming to the forefront.
There are currently about 4,000 physicians, nurse practitioners and other medical professionals nationwide who either specialize in in-home care or make it a part of their practice, according to the Northwest Indiana Times. And for a variety of reasons, these numbers may very well increase.
One factor driving providers to make home visits is a provision of the Affordable Care Act known as Independence at Home, targeted at keeping patients with multiple chronic conditions out of the hospital.
Although not all house-call patients carry high-paying private insurance, physicians who provide the service to Medicare patients and even the uninsured told the NWI Times that the cost is not prohibitive but is comparable to the cost of a visit to a physician's office. Overall, as the American Academy of Home Care Physicians notes, "house calls are more likely to prevent unnecessary and far more costly [emergency room] visits and hospitalizations. At $1,500 per ER visit, the cost of 10 house calls is offset by one ER visit prevented."
For this reason, employers are also expressing increased interest in providing their employees access to house calls. To make the visits as cost-effective as possible, however, many self-insured companies are turning to services staffed by nurse practitioners rather than physicians, such as Texas-based WhiteGlove House Call Health, recently named one of the top three innovaters in healthcare by healthcare technology group Adaptive Business Leaders, according to CFO Magazine.
With more than 400 corporate clients nationwide, WhiteGlove charges an annual membership fee of $300 per employee and a fixed fee of $35 per visit, to send a nurse practitioner to care for patients in homes, offices, or hotels within a company's service area. While generic medications are provided to patients for free, chronic-disease care is also available for an extra cost.
To learn more:
- read the article from the NWI Times
- see this piece from CFO Magazine