Wall Street Journal health reporter Shirley Wang highlighted Pennsylvania’s efforts to better coordinate care across the state in her article, “Pilot Plan On Health An Option For States.” It is the largest state pilot program of its kind in the U.S. and has made great strides in care coordination and delivery system reform. Wang writes:

Known as a "patient centered medical home," the approach aims to better coordinate care to avoid gaps or overlapping efforts. The main tenet is that a primary-care provider oversees care with a team of health professionals and coordinates with resources in the community, according to the National Center for Quality Assurance, an independent, nonprofit organization that recognizes practices as "medical homes." The approach is designed to provide care in a more structured and organized way than traditional practices, but it can involve more personnel and higher costs, at least initially.

Implementing a new health care delivery system will, of course, incur additional costs at the outset— for additional training, process development, patient enrollment, etc. However, it is more important to evaluate long-term impact – on both health outcomes and overall cost savings – than short-term cost.

For instance, one key point of Wang’s article reads “In the long run, more coordinated care should lower health-care costs by reducing inefficiencies such as redundant tests, and because patients with better control over chronic conditions won't need expensive emergency care as frequently.” Chronic disease is the number-one driver of health care costs, with 75 percent of health care spending linked to chronically ill patients. It has been proven again and again that effectively managing—and preventing—chronic disease through care coordination saves money.

State programs can be looked at as pilots for national delivery system reforms-- in this case, the  Chronic Care Initiative has generated initially successful results that should garner national attention.