Medicare testing new approach to health care in S.A.

We hear a lot these days about health care reform. One Medicare program designed to save money and increase quality of care is showing some promising early results.

Gail Harrington, 70, of Universal City had her knee replaced on October 19^th. Osteoarthritis was getting the best of her. "My problem is I cannot get up or down and the pressure of going down stairs is very severe," Harrington explained.

She underwent her procedure at , one of the five San Antonio Baptist facilities taking part in the Acute Care Episode ( ) project. Doctors work with hospitals to streamline billing and order in bulk, saving money, time and paperwork.

"In fact, that what's happened," said , and orthopedic surgeon. "In the three months since we've been doing it, costs have gone down for Medicare, as the provider, and the quality has gone up for the patients."

The ACE demonstration project includes 22 different heart services and nine different orthopedic procedures. Changes have been small, but effective. For instance, instead of ordering from seven different joint replacement companies, Baptist now only uses four. That's given them leverage for better deals.

Physicians have gotten together to come up with standardized practices everyone uses. Each patient undergoes a similar protocol and shares in the savings. They get a check back in the mail, about $300 for orthopedic patients and even over $1000 for some cardiac patients.

"And that's a good thing," commented Harrington.

Fox says it's helped to do away with some duplication. "Streaming it out so you get what you need to get, but don't get the frivolous things that we were just spending money on that really didn't enhance patient care," Fox claimed.

Since June, almost 600 procedures have been performed as part of the Medicare demonstration project at the five Baptist hospitals. The program continues for three years.

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