ALBANY, N.Y. – November 11, 2023 – Ten years after launching an innovative care model designed to improve the quality and affordability of health care in Upstate New York, CDPHP is releasing the results from a 10-year study showing its Enhanced Primary Care (EPC) model has saved a whopping $400 million while significantly improving the quality and experience of care for hundreds of thousands of patients.
After noticing a decline in the number of medical students choosing the field of primary care medicine, CDPHP launched EPC with the primary goal of reducing physician burnout while improving health outcomes for its members. EPC departs from the traditional fee-for-service payment model, which encourages more, not better care. Instead, EPC doctors are paid for quality, not quantity, and provided significant financial incentives for meeting certain quality milestones.
“We’re paying doctors to spend more quality time with their patients,” said CDPHP president and CEO, Dr. John D. Bennett. “This has resulted in fewer emergency room visits, inpatient hospital stays, and costly medications being prescribed.” added Bennett who noted that most of the savings is related to pharmacy costs with providers prescribing generic medications over costly name brand drugs.
According to the study, the most significant was realized in the following areas:
- $130 million in prescription drug savings
- $55 million in hospital inpatient savings
- $15 million in emergency room savings
In addition to cost savings, EPC sites have been proven to move the needle on key quality metrics, outperforming non-EPC sites in the areas of asthma care, diabetes care, cancer screenings, and more.
“We’re putting our money where our mouth is. EPC doctors have been proven to excel on critical quality scores, so this is a true investment in the health of our community.” said Bennett.
Today, the EPC program includes over 200 primary care practices who provide care for 90 percent of CDPHP members. EPC providers received an additional $75 million more in reimbursements and enhanced bonuses that if they had not participated in the program.