A study suggests that having a “medical home” can help parents of children who have special needs to save some money on medical bills. It seems to work because it organizes the care that a child needs into one location.
When you hear the phrase “medical home”, it conjures up images of hospital-like group home situations. There are many parents who are going to dislike the idea of sending their child who has special needs off to one of these types of places, (even if they thought it would help to cut down on medical expenses). However, “medical home” actually means something completely different from what you might think.
In reality, a “medical home” could be a primary care doctor’s office. Parents meet with this doctor each and every time their child needs medical care or treatment. The doctor incorporates the parents (or the family) into the decision making process about medical situations. This same doctor coordinates and follows up on the visits to specialists that the child requires.
The doctor becomes the family’s “home base” or “homeroom”. The family goes to see this doctor whenever their child needs to be seen. The doctor is the link between the family and other specialists. The family returns to this doctor for more medical care (instead of using a different doctor).
This is a way to streamline what can be a series of complex medical situations and illnesses. It organizes the decisions about health care options through one specific doctor. This can be a way for families of children who have chronic illnesses to cut the cost of health care, and to lower their out of pocket medical bills.
A study looked at 31,000 families. Each family had a child who has a long-term health condition, (such as asthma, autism, or allergies).
Researchers noted the amount of money that each family spent on out of pocket medical care for their child who has a special need. More than 23,000 children in the study were covered by private health insurance. Their families paid (on average) around $1,300 per year on out of pocket medical costs. This equates to around 2% of household income.
About half of the group of families in the study had a “medical home”. These families spent (on average), around $1,088 a year on out of pocket medical expenses. In other words, they were spending around 1.6% of their total household income on medical bills.
There was another group in this study. About 8,600 kids in the study were covered by a government funded form of health insurance. Their families spent about $317 a year on out of pocket medical bills. The families who were using a “medical home”, however, were only spending around $215 a year on out of pocket medical expenses.
Image by Tim Boyd on Flickr