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Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Worst-Off Patients Get More Help


An $8.5 million, three-year federal grant will support a telemedicine program targeting approximately 5,000 of Medicaid’s sickest patients, such as those with hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS, in New Mexico and Washington. The goals are to improve patient care by giving primary providers access to specialists via the Internet, and to drive down the cost of the government-funded health insurance program for the poor.

Dr. Sanjeev Arora of the University of New Mexico created the program in 2003 to expand the reach of his hepatitis C practice. Under Project ECHO, Arora devised a web-based teleconferencing system that allows primary care clinicians to consult with a team of specialists from UNM. The program is a “force multiplier” that lets a small team of specialists recruit local providers in treating difficult diseases, he said.

Across the country, 1 percent of Medicaid patients consume 22 percent of the program’s resources. “The whole nation is struggling with the problem that a small number of patients account for a huge amount of cost,” Arora said. These patients “tend to have many hospital stays and [emergency room] visits because they don’t have primary care support.”

In New Mexico, the program will identify roughly 2,500 of the state’s sickest patients. About 300 medical providers at 10 community-based clinics statewide will be trained under the initiative, Arora said.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!