Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate an adult home palliative care (HPC) program for multiple insurance product lines using multiple vendors to determine if the annual costs of health care decreased for those enrolled in HPC. Study Design: Of the 506 members who were referred to and qualified for palliative care in 2019, a retroactive review was done comparing annual health care costs between the 396 members in the enrolled group and the 110 members in the group receiving usual care. Methods: The total health care costs for the calendar year 2019 were compared between the group enrolled in HPC and those who received usual care. Cost savings were further evaluated based on whether the member was enrolled in the palliative care program for 1-5 versus 6-12 months. Results: Overall medical costs for these 396 enrollees for the calendar year 2019 showed a gross savings of $24,643 per member (16.7% decrease in cost). For members enrolled for 1-5 months, annual gross savings were $23,314 per member (15.8% decrease from the comparison group), and for members enrolled for 6-12 months, annual gross savings were $26,409 per member (17.9% decrease). The savings were most prominent for the commercial insurance product with a 51% decrease in annual costs. Conclusions: Adult home-based palliative care delivered by multiple vendors (consisting of multiple insurance product lines) to a population is effective in decreasing total medical costs by 16.7% during a calendar year compared with a control group. The gross savings for those enrolled for 6-12 months (17.9%) were greater than the gross savings for those enrolled for 1-5 months (15.8%). The savings were most prominent for the commercial insurance product, while an increase in cost was seen for the Medicaid product.
Keywords: advanced illness; health care cost; health care savings; palliative care.