Medical Homes Seeking Better Outcomes

WASHINGTON — In health policy circles, they are called “super-utilizers,” but the name isn’t meant to connote any special powers. Just the opposite.

They are people whose complex medical problems make them disproportionately heavy users of expensive health care services, particularly emergency room treatment and in-patient hospitalizations. The cost of treating them is huge: Just 5 percent of Medicaid’s 68 million beneficiaries account for 60 percent of the overall spending on the program.