The Healthy Futures (HF) Community Primary Care Project was designed to improve health and reduce care expenditures by bringing primary and secondary prevention services to residents of six rural communities in Maine. The project is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Bingham Program, with additional funding from Maine Blue Cross/Blue Shield, HealthSource (CIGNA) and Maine Medicaid. The program employs Health Advocates, trained community health nurses, to provide health assessments, health education, case management and other supportive services to participants and their families. Health Advocates serve as intermediaries by providing a link between patients and their primary care physicians. A standardized evaluation instrument and innovative tracking/follow-up software were developed to assess pre- to post-program changes in the use of preventive care, risk behaviors and health status among 400+ participants. In addition, claims data were analyzed to assess changes in health care utilization and expenditures in the participant population and in a non-program comparison population. Follow-up findings compiled to date show that nearly all participants who had not received age-appropriate cancer screenings and other recommended clinical preventive services upon program entry did so when assessed at either the second or third follow-up assessment. Moreover, claims-based utilization and expenditure data showed that rates of service use and per member per month costs to payers are declining, overall and for specific services (e.g., hospital care). Preliminary (2 year) findings and additional follow-up assessments will be presented and the applicability of the Healthy Futures Program to other communities will be discussed.
Learning Objectives: 1. Describe the Healthy Futures program and the mechanisms by which it hypothesized to improve health and reduce health care expenditures. 2. Describe the methodology used to implement, monitor and evaluate the Healthy Futures program and discuss the major outcome variables. 3. Describe evaluation findings regarding post-program rates of clinical preventive service utilization, health risk behaviors and heath care expenditures
Keywords: Primary Care, Community-Based Health Promotion
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.