The Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC, is demonstrating that the model of physicians making house calls can considerably reduce hospitalization costs for elderly patients, reports the Washington Times. Washington Hospital estimates that the house calls, which cost $35,000 per year per patient, prevent $75,000 in hospital costs for each patient annually. Medicaid reimbursement for the home visits is “very progressive,” say the physicians who run the program, which has 17 staff members, including social workers. About 150 to 170 patients weekly are served by the program and all patients live within a 10-mile of the physicians' offices. Several other hospitals have inquired about the program, but a city has to have a large population of needy elderly patients to make house calls pay off, Rick Wade, senior vice president for communications for the American Hospital Association, was quoted as saying.
