A California program for Medi-Cal beneficiaries with complex medical needs and chronic conditions reduced the number of emergency department visits and hospital stays among its enrollees, according to an evaluation published today by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

Nadereh Pourat with UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research talks about the Whole Person Care Pilot program.

But an analysis from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that such programs saved “an average of $383 per Medi-Cal beneficiary per year — a meager amount compared with the program’s cost.

Over five years the program has reduced expensive hospital stays and emergency room visits for people on Medicaid, saving taxpayers an average of $383 per patient per year, according to an analysis by researchers at UCLA.

In a precursor to the state’s current initiative, California experimented with a mix of housing assistance programs and social services through its “Whole Person Care” pilot program. Nadereh Pourat, of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, evaluated the program for the state concluding that local trials reduced emergency visits and hospitalizations, saving an average of $383 per Medi-Cal beneficiary per year — a meager amount compared with the program’s cost. Over five years, the state spent $3.6 billion serving about 250,000 patients enrolled in local experiments, Pourat said.

The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research said that for every 1,000 people enrolled in California's Whole Person Care pilot program, there were 45 fewer hospitalizations and 130 fewer ER visits when compared with a similar group of patients who were not in the program.

Nadereh Pourat, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles' Fielding School of Public Health, noted that insurance companies use financial incentives or penalties to promote important preventive care. Examples she has seen included promoting chlamydia screening or checking for cavities in young children, she said in an email. "The hope is to get providers used to routinely providing evidence-based care," but not to continue providing the incentive forever," Pourat said.

Eliminating the premiums is likely to create more stable coverage for families over time, regardless of whether their income inches up or down," said Nadereh Pourat, associate director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

The results show that such programs help complex patients in different ways, depending on their needs," Pourat said. "Most importantly, our findings highlight the overall success of the Whole Person Care program and its potential for improving the lives of high-risk patients.

Nadereh Pourat, a professor at the Fielding School of Public Health and researcher on the case, said she will indirectly measure the health of residents in Aliso Canyon's surrounding areas by identifying where residents utilized health care, which will help understand the short and long term health impacts of exposure on residents compared to those who were not exposed to the gas leak.