Denver Health Medical Center studied 4,774 publicly insured or uninsured super-utilizers at Denver Health between 2011 and 2013. Health Affairs published the study.
Here are six points:
1. Super-utilizers are people who use a lot of healthcare resources because of chronic conditions, or social or behavioral health conditions.
2. The study found that 3 percent of adult patients at Denver Health were considered super-utilizers and were responsible for 30 percent of healthcare costs.
3. Super-utilizers did not denote the same patients over time, however, as super-utilizers usually have short, intense cycles of healthcare use.
4. About one-quarter of the patients were high utilizers one year later.
5. The results of this study allow for policymakers to design programs that lower costs by looking at the reasons patients require more care and intervening at appropriate times.
6. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation funded the study with a grant.
"We have used these in-depth analyses of Denver Health patients who have experienced multiple hospitalizations to implement unique population health services tailored to their specific health and social risk profiles," said Tracy Johnson, PhD, director of health reform initiatives at Denver Health and lead of study.
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