Identifying Future Hig Cost Individuals

‘Identifying Future High-Cost Individuals within an Intermediate Cost Population,’ by Juan Lu and others
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This is a peer-reviewed research article that was first published in the ‘Quality in Primary Care’ journal website in 2015. The article highlights research that was conducted in Virginia USA between 2010 and 2013 to help forecast the future health needs across different categories of people (Lu et al., 2015). Reading the article gives an impression that the primary focus of the study was to unearth some of the factors that affect the health needs of various population segments of the society with special emphasis on why the associated health costs for a certain population group may increase in the future. Further scrutiny of the article reveals that the underlying concept of the research is to use the findings of the research to improve patient experience, enhance health and decrease the costs of treatment.
The research evaluated information from 9,624 respondents who were classified into eight groups depending on the associated illness burden with groupings ranging from ‘good health’ to ‘near death.’ What is more, the respondents were not insured and belonged to the under 200% federal poverty level category. The respondents were given free treatment which included access to specialized care, allotment to a primary care provider, and affordable medication. At the end of the research, the program had enhanced the health of the respondents and also saved costs.

While these details are easy to understand what remains unclear is how the policymakers and health experts will utilize the results of the research to tailor healthcare to the expected future needs of the society. This is because the health of a person can fluctuate from ‘good’ to ‘near death’ within days and this will escalate the cost of treatment. I also failed to understand why the researchers did not classify the respondents based on their economic status instead of their medical condition because this would have given the true effect of treatment expenses on various groups of the community. Perhaps more information would be necessary to address these questions.
Reference
Lu, J., Britton, E., Ferrance, J., Rice, E., Kuzel, A., & Dow, A. (2015). Identifying Future High-Cost Individuals within an Intermediate Cost Population. Quality in primary care, 23(6), 318.