Health Care Homes Sustainability Roadmap: Finance
The Health Care Homes (HCH) Sustainability Workgroup and leadership of the State Employee Group Insurance Program (SEGIP) began a collaborative project to educate SEGIP members about the benefits of HCH certification in 2019. The HCH Sustainability Workgroup’s primary objectives are to improve the health of all Minnesotans by ensuring the sustainability of certified HCH clinics and promoting population health and health equity. These goals complement SEGIP’s mission, which is to help members achieve and maintain health in every aspect of their lives by providing high-quality and cost-effective insurance and benefits.
SEGIP administers the MN Advantage Health Plan, the medical insurance program offered to state employees. It encourages members to choose cost-efficient, high-quality clinics. The Advantage Plan covers more than 130,000 members, including employees of state agencies and quasi-state units, their dependents, pre-65 retirees, and other separated employees. Members choose a primary care clinic that manages their care, and each clinic is assigned a cost level between one and four, with one being the most cost-efficient and four the least. Members are encouraged to select lower cost level clinics through reduced cost-sharing.
To help members choose the clinic that best meets their needs, SEGIP maintains a comprehensive online clinic directory that provides information on clinic location, cost level, quality, and HCH certification status. SEGIP incorporated HCH status prominently on the clinic directory starting with Open Enrollment 2022. This shows if a clinic is HCH certified, provides an informational pop-up that explains what HCH certification means for their care, and links to the HCH website for more information.
While analyzing 2022 enrollment results, SEGIP found that HCH certification was widespread in clinic networks, and the majority of members chose to receive care at a HCH certified clinic. In addition, those members enrolled at HCH certified clinics had lower average cost levels.
Nearly 55% of SEGIP primary care clinics in Minnesota had HCH status in 2022.
About 85% of SEGIP members in Minnesota chose an HCH as their primary care clinic for 2022.
Members enrolled at HCH clinics had lower average cost levels for 2022.
“Adding Health Care Homes certification to our clinic directory has been a great way to show our members when a clinic emphasizes effective care coordination,” said Zach Holmquist, a Senior Health Care Analyst at SEGIP.
To further this collaboration, HCH and SEGIP will continue to look at new ways to improve awareness and promote the benefits of the HCH model of care.
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